I’ve been thinking lately of sending a message to the therapist I saw in my late teens to share what I’ve achieved since then… travelling on my own, moving to two different countries, starting businesses, getting married. So much of that would have been very difficult if I’d stayed in my anxious shell.

Ideally, we’d all be seeing a therapist. But first up, therapy can be expensive. You’re busy. Maybe you just want to start doing some of the work yourself first. Or perhaps, you’ve done a lot of therapy already and now just want a top-up.

Book a session with a professional if you can, especially for more severe challenges, but here are some of the best self-help books to read when you can’t get to therapy to find a bit more peace, understanding, and acceptance.

• Best for self-reflection: The Resilience Workbook
• Best for finding meaning: The Socrates Express
• Best for coping with loss: When Things Fall Apart
• Best for navigating relationships: The Course of Love
• Best for self-care: My Inner Sky
• Best for easing anxiety: Hope and Help for Your Nerves: End Anxiety Now
• Best for when you’re experiencing depression: Reasons to Stay Alive
• Best for burnout or when you’re stuck in a rut: Wintering

The best self-help books for 2022 to read when you can’t get to therapy

1. My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between By Mari Andrew

My Inner Sky is a gorgeous book by writer and illustrator Mari Andrew, offering a collection of essays and illustrations divided into phases of the sky – twilight, golden hour, night, and dawn – that reflect the ups and downs of life.

Mari explores all of the emotions that make up a life and offers insights about trauma and healing, loneliness and love, and shares empowering wisdom on how to turn all of it into something meaningful.

2. The Resilience Workbook: Essential Skills to Recover from Stress, Trauma, and Adversity

Some of the best types of books to read when you can’t get to therapy are workbooks created by therapists and experts.

The Resilience Workbook is one of the best self-help workbooks, consisting of a step-by-step approach to help you recover from setbacks, stay calm under pressure, build self-esteem, and get through difficult situations.

Set aside time in your schedule to work on mental health activities, and start a dedicated notebook or word document to use with this workbook. In particular, the journaling exercises can be really beneficial – don’t skip them!

3. The Socrates Express: Searching for Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers By Eric Weiner

What can we learn from dead philosophers? Quite a lot, says Eric Weiner in The Socrates Express, a fun book that’s full of wisdom.

Traveling by train (the most thoughtful mode of transport, he believes), Eric Weiner journeys thousands of miles, making stops in Athens, Delhi, Wyoming, Coney Island, Frankfurt, and points in between to recon­nect with philosophy’s original purpose: teaching us how to lead wiser, more meaningful lives.

From Socrates and ancient Athens to Beauvoir and 20th-century Paris, Weiner’s chosen philosophers and places provide timeless practical and spiritual lessons that are still very relevant for today’s chaotic times.

4. Hope and Help for Your Nerves: End Anxiety Now by Claire Weekes

This bestselling self-help book for anxiety – based on the author’s years of experience treating patients – will show you step-by-step how to break the cycle of anxiety and feel calmer and more balanced every day, no matter what life throws at you.

In a Reddit post on the best books for anxiety, amanda_l3ee shares how the author “talks about how your brain can trick your body into feeling things and then those things make your brain spiral deeper until you are caught in a loop of anxiety. Just understanding that this happens and I’m not crazy has helped me manage my anxiety.”

5. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

I first read Meditations during one of the most anxious periods of my life, while studying for my undergrad degree in the UK.

I remember reading a Penguin paperback of Meditations in a little coffee shop during the weekends, shortly before I found the courage to end a relationship, travel abroad alone for the first time, and then move to Switzerland.

This book – Marcus Aurelius’s private journal – is the first self-help book ever written, and it’s just as applicable today as it was two thousand years ago.

Get your copy and turn to it when you’re feeling lethargic, lost, sweating the small stuff, or lacking motivation.

6. I Thought It Was Just Me… But It Isn’t by Brene Brown

No one writes about shame and vulnerability like Brené Brown does. I Thought It Was Just Me… But It Isn’t is Brené’s liberating celebration of the importance of our imperfections, both to our relationships and to our own sense of self.

7. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk

The Body Keeps the Score is one of the most popular books about trauma and the mind-body connection, reaching bestseller lists and helping millions of people to think about how the past is still showing up in their body. It’s also one of the most recommended books by therapists.

Ever since I read it, I’ve been more conscious of how I feel in my body – how I’m holding my breath, feeling tense in my shoulders, tightening my muscles. The On Being podcast episode with Bessel Van Der Kolk is fabulous too.

8. The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts

When we spend all of our time worrying about the future and lamenting the past, how can we enjoy the present moment?

Here in The Wisdom of Insecurity, philosopher Alan Watts shows us how – in an age of unprecedented anxiety – we can find fulfillment by embracing the present and living more fully in the now.

This isn’t about solving all of our problems and boosting our confidence. In fact, Alan Watts shows us that true security can only come from understanding that impermanence and insecurity are the essence of our existence.

This beautiful book is a guide to return to again and again for comfort in challenging times.

9. The Course of Love by Alain de Botton

I’ve recommended The Course of Love to so many people, and so many people have recommended it to me as well.

It’s a guidebook to love, really, told as a novel yet interjected with philosopher Alain de Botton’s trademark comments on the psychology, sociology, and philosophy of love.

Why is love never smooth sailing? Why do our partners infuriate us? And why is our partner so uniquely infuriating? 

Read this book if you’d like an answer – it’s one of the most impactful non-fiction books you can read. (Spoiler: we’re all infuriating and crazy in our own way, and only those we don’t know very well seem totally sane.)

10. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed By Lori Gottlieb

In Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, therapist Lori Gottlieb shares the story of when she realised that she was in desperate need of therapy herself: after an unexpected breakup left her feeling lost and devastated.

As Gottlieb explores the inner lives of her patients, she finds that the questions they’re struggling with are the very ones she is now bringing to her own therapist.

11. The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris

The Happiness Trap counters the idea that we’re always supposed to be happy… which is, quite frankly, making us all miserable. I love this illustrated edition that makes the book even more accessible and easy to digest.

In this self-help book for depression, Harris shows you how to use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a simple, self-administered therapy based on mindfulness to start living more fully, reduce stress, and treasure the range of emotions that make up a satisfying life.

12. Feeling Great: The Revolutionary New Treatment for Depression and Anxiety by David D. Burns

In Feeling Great, Dr. David Burns shares how our negative thoughts don’t result from what’s wrong with us, but rather from what’s right with us. Our minds are trying to tell us something, and our job is to listen. Only then can we realise that we don’t need most of these negative thoughts anymore.

This is Dr. Burns’s fast-track way to help you start working through your depression yourself (or ideally, accompanied by a psychologist or other professional). It also goes beyond this, though, and shows you how to find your way back to joy.

13. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

Reasons to Stay Alive is one of the best books about depression from the last decade – and one of the most popular too.

This is Matt Haig’s story of depression, written with the trademark honesty and vulnerability that he’s become so well-known for in the last few years.

It’s packed with memorable takeaways to revisit on the most difficult days, including a reminder that, with time, the light will come back into your life. It’s a good book for anyone with depression to read, but especially men struggling with depression.

14. Wintering by Katherine May

Wintering is one of the best books to learn to live by the seasons of your life and navigate burnout. You won’t always feel full of energy and creativity, but nor should you. Wintering is just as acceptable and inevitable. This is exactly what I needed to hear during my last period of burnout.

15. The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz

This beautifully written non-fiction book feels like therapy to read. The Examined Life is all about how we lose and find ourselves – in particular, how our minds respond to trauma and deal with loss, based on the author’s decades of experience working as a psychoanalyst.

Each chapter offers a fictionalised version of a client; each one crafted with such intricacy and empathy that the book almost reads like fiction.

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According to clinical psychologist Scott M. Bea, PsyD, adult coloring helps attention to flow away from ourselves and into the present moment, to relax the brain, and to offer a low-stakes escape that you can’t really get right or wrong.

Some experts have argued that it’s not “proper” art therapy, but I think that’s not really the point. Just like listening to soothing music or reading a relaxing book, if unwinding with a coloring books helps you to relax in your home for very little money, then it’s absolutely worth doing.

If adult coloring can even help to ease some symptoms of anxiety or depression, as some researchers from New Zealand have suggested, then all the better.

To help you to escape from the stresses of the world and relive the days of focusing only on staying in the lines, here are some of the most calming coloring books to relax and unwind with as an adult in 2022.

The best coloring books for adults to relax and unwind with

1. Geomorphia: An Extreme Coloring and Search Challenge by Kerby Rosanes

Philippines-based artist and “epic doodler” Kerby Rosanes’ coloring books for adults are some of the most intricately stunning you can find.

Start with Geomorphia, “an extreme coloring and search challenge”, in which you’ll meet animals that morph from waterfalls and whirlwinds, firey foxes that erupt from volcanoes, and fairy-tale castles that grow out of crystal foundations. – all for you to bring to life in color.

Kerby’s coloring books definitely aren’t the simplest on this list, but they absolutely have the most wow-factor. If you’re happy to have an extra challenge during your time to unwind, seek out the search items at the back of the book in the pages you’ve colored.

2. Millie Marotta’s Wildlife Wonders by Millie Marotta

Millie Marotta is the illustrator of a huge list of best-selling coloring books for adults, crafting templates for gorgeous illustrations inspired by the natural world.

Wildlife Wonders is the perfect coloring book to start with. From a mighty African elephant to a tiny field mouse, these coloring adventures are wonderfully delicate but simple enough to unwind with as you create your own interpretation.

After studying Wildlife Illustration, Millie now works on her projects from a studio by the sea in West Wales, close to where she grew up surrounded by nature on a small holding in the Welsh hills.

3. The Time Garden: A Magical Journey and Coloring Book by Daria Song

So much love and attention have been poured into this coloring book. The Time Garden is Daria Song’s meditative and creatively inspiring journey through a fantastical cuckoo-clock-inspired realm, beginning with a dreamy story and all ready for you to bring to life with the colors you choose.

Daria Song is a textile artist and coloring book artist from Seoul, South Korea, and is the author of two more coloring books in the whimsical Time series. Daria’s also the author of a gorgeously imagined activity book, The Mysterious Mansion, which is perfect for mindfulness exercises and stress relief.

4. The Mindfulness Coloring Book: Anti-Stress Art Therapy for Busy People by Emma Farrarons

The Mindfulness Coloring Book is a pocket–size coloring book with 100 pages of natural and relaxing patterns, designed to channel stress into relaxing, creative accomplishments.

This bestselling coloring book for adults is one of the most popular from the last decade – and the first one I ever received, as a gift one Christmas. Promising anti-stress art therapy for busy people, it’s the perfect little addition to your self-care time.

5. Express Yourself – Mindfulness Coloring Book by RYVE

This gorgeous book is part-coloring book, part-personal growth guidebook, printed on thick 120gsm paper and with tear-out pages so you can frame the illustrations you love.

To set it apart from other bestselling coloring books, it’s packed with 29+ purposefully designed images to inspire you to live well, alongside 12+ self-reflection exercises to encourage personal growth.

6. Patterns of the Universe: A Coloring Adventure in Math and Beauty by Alex Bellos and Edmund Harriss

Patterns of the Universe is a unique and ingenious coloring book, revealing math’s hidden beauty in an incredibly accessible and calming way.

From the delicate silhouette of a snowflake to the spiral seeds of a sunflower and the symmetry of the Sri Yantra mandala, this coloring book is a reminder that math is at the heart of so much of the universe’s beauty and wonder.

7. Enchanted Forest Artist’s Edition: 20 Drawings to Color and Frame by Johanna Basford

If there is a Queen of Coloring, it would be Johanna Basford. Johanna’s bestselling coloring books have sold millions of copies, including the #1 New York Times Bestseller Enchanted Forest.

Based on the original book, this Artist’s Edition has a twist, consisting of 20 stunning drawings to color, easily remove, and frame for your walls or to share as gifts. It includes the most popular artworks from Enchanted Forest, featuring a magic castle, unicorns, owls, and more.

8. Prettycitylondon: The Colouring Book by Siobhan Ferguson

Color the calm back into your day with this gorgeous coloring book by Prettycitylondon, featuring the most beautiful, quaint, and peaceful hidden gems of London.

The intricate and calming illustrations by artist Lucy Hester are based on photographs by Siobhan Ferguson, curator of the popular @prettycitylondon Instagram account.

Travel to London with your coloring pens and bring to life the tree-lined streets, enticing eateries, and vine-adorned houses of the British capital’s quiet corners.

9. Harry Potter Coloring Book by Scholastic

If Hogwarts is one of your comfort places, retreat into this Harry Potter coloring book for some time for self-care. This official book is filled with intricate illustrations and elaborate designs used in the making of the Harry Potter films, offering you the chance to bring it back to life with vibrant color.

10. Inspirational Animals Coloring Book by Catty Press

The Inspirational Animals Coloring Book is perfect for animal lovers to relax, unwind, and enjoy some laid-back, zero-pressure creativity.

Featuring stress-relieving animal designs and uplifting motivational quotes, each simple illustration in this comforting coloring book is printed on a single-sided sheet to prevent bleed-through and keep your coloring perfect.

For more ways to reduce stress and find greater calm in your day, you might like these relaxing books, my collection of the most beautifully-written books of all time, and this list of gorgeous children’s books to escape into.

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Reading can and should be about nurturing ourselves. Even with no one watching, even with no goals achieved, reading can soothe us, inspire us, and heal us.

To help you get back into reading, here are some of the best books if you don’t know what to read right now. I’ve included some popular newcomers, a handful of my old favourites, and some of the most popular recommendations I’ve shared here on Tolstoy Therapy.

The best books to read if you don’t know what to read right now

1. Fairy Tale by Stephen King

In this new book from Stephen King for September 2022, the storytelling master digs deep into his imagination to create a world that blurs the boundaries between magic and reality.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid. But when he accidentally inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, he realises that the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Early on in the pandemic, King asked himself: “What could you write that would make you happy?” This book is the answer.

2. The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller

Madeleine Miller’s writing is a real gift for bookworms. I often talk about how much I love Circe, Miller’s first book, but Song of Achilles is another magically beautiful book to pick up when you don’t know what to read. (Even bestselling author of The Goldfinch Donna Tartt has described it as “a hard book to put down”.)

This thrilling and utterly captivating retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War is a tale of gods, kings, love, and the desire for immortal fame.

3. Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid has written some of the best books to binge-read from the last few years. I first read The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and loved and hated the characters in equal measure. I loved the themes of family and self-discovery in Malibu Rising. I listened to the full-cast audiobook of Daisy Jones & the Six and it was fantastic.

Now in 2022, Taylor Jenkins has published Carrie Soto is Back, her story of a tennis legend supposedly past her prime at thirty-seven, brought back to the tennis court for one more grand slam. Carrie Soto sacrificed everything to become the best, and now she needs to give everything she’s got to defend her record.

4. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

After years of trying, I’ve finally convinced my husband to read Pachinko… mostly because I really wanted to watch the TV adaptation that came out earlier this year, but also because I know he’d love it. (He’s nearly finished with it, and has a lot of good things to say.)

Pachinko is a five-hundred-page epic about a poor Korean immigrant family covering ground in their homeland, Japan, and the US. It’s compulsively readable. I just re-read it and found so much to fall in love with all over again.

5. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

When I worked in my village bookshop growing up, Cutting for Stone was the book that the shop owner recommended to everyone who didn’t know what to read. I was so glad I finally picked it up. It was incredible.

It’s the story of Marion and Shiva Stone, twin brothers born of a secret union between an Indian nun and a British surgeon in Ethiopia. Bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

Moving between Addis Ababa and New York City, Cutting for Stone is a great book to read if you’ve already read and enjoyed Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

“Wasn’t that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted…”

6. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

If you don’t know what to read right now, how about making it the time you try War and Peace?

War and Peace is a book that’s helped me through so much over the last few years. I first read it when I was about fifteen years old and really struggling with anxiety. Unexpectedly, the enormous Russian tome became a balm for my soul.

It’s a book about life, death, love, loss… everything, really. I loved getting lost in the worlds of the characters and following their right and wrong turns in life.

“Here I am alive, and it’s not my fault, so I have to try and get by as best I can without hurting anybody until death takes over.”

To help you get started, here’s my guide to reading War and Peace (and actually maybe enjoying it). I’ve also shared my comparison of the best translations. I love this clothbound hardcover edition of the Anthony Briggs translation.

7. From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan

From a Low and Quiet Sea really hit me hard. Starting in Syria and crossing the water to reach Ireland, this story of three men is one of the most quietly emotional books I’ve read. I love author Rachel Joyce’s review: “It’s a beautiful, luminous kind of piece – full of mystery, compassion, woven with such skill; heartbreaking and restorative. I will carry these splintered men around with me for a long time, along with the women who have loved them.”

“Trees live, like you and me, long lives, and they know things. They know the rule, the only one that’s real and must be kept. What’s the rule? You know. I’ve told you lots of times before. Be kind.”

8. A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler

I’ve recommended A Whole Life many times on the blog before, and it also features in my memoir of my time living in the Swiss Alps. In this novel, Robert Seethaler gently shares the story of one man’s quiet life in the Austrian mountains in which not much happens and yet everything happens. It’s a quietly earth-shattering book.

“You can buy a man’s hours off him, you can steal his days from him, or you can rob him of his whole life, but no one can take away from any man so much as a single moment. That’s the way it is.”

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Beautiful books, inside and out, can offer us a dose of bibliotherapy when we’re experiencing difficulties, need a helping hand, or simply want some comfort. They offer a balm for the soul to help you get back to where you want to be; back out into the world with mindful gratitude.

The following books are some of the most beautifully written books of all time, offering gorgeous prose, unforgettable characters, and plots that help you to appreciate the wonder and beauty of life.

Which of these beautifully written books have you already read, and which ones can you add to your to-read list?

10 of the most beautiful books with truly gorgeous writing

1. The Waves by Virginia Woolf

The Waves is in close contention with Mrs Dalloway for my favourite novel by Virginia Woolf. It’s an innovative and wonderfully poetic book, layering six voices in monologue; moving from morning until night, from childhood into old age. All against the backdrop of the sea. The Waves helped to create modern fiction and is one of the most beautiful books ever written. If you love language, I think you’ll cherish it too.

“I am made and remade continually. Different people draw different words from me.”

The Waves

2. A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler

A Whole Life is a book that will move you to tears – and then make you want to turn back to the beginning and read it again.

It’s a story of the simple life of Andreas Egger, who knows every path and peak of his mountain valley in the Austrian Alps. It’s a beautiful, heartbreaking book about what life is really made of; both the little and the big.

Choose whether you’d like to read it in a couple of sittings (like I did on a snow day in Switzerland) or try to savour it for longer. Or read it twice and do both.

“You can buy a man’s hours off him, you can steal his days from him, or you can rob him of his whole life, but no one can take away from any man so much as a single moment. That’s the way it is.”

A Whole Life

Another book by Robert Seethaler is The Tobacconist, which is a tender (and extremely heartbreaking) story about one young man and his friendship with Sigmund Freud during the Nazi occupation of Vienna.

3. The Overstory by Richard Powers

A paean to the natural world, Richard Powers masterfully weaves together interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The Overstory is a spellbinding gateway into the vast, interconnected, and magnificently intricate world that we depend on in so many ways: the world of trees.

“You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes. . . .”

The Overstory

4. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison’s writing will break your heart while you marvel at her mesmerising prose. The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, is a powerful and painful examination of our obsession with white beauty that questions race, class, and gender with her iconic subtly, grace, and poetic wonder.

“And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. We substituted good grammar for intellect; we switched habits to simulate maturity; we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word.”

The Bluest Eye

5. The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd

The Living Mountain is one of the very best mountain memoirs ever written, crafted with so much simple magic and elegance by a woman in a sea of male writers. Each chapter is focused on a different aspect of a mountain experience; water, frost and snow, air and light, and being. Another favourite quote of mine is from Nan Shepherd’s first book, The Quarry Wood: “It’s a grand thing to get leave to live.”

“Yet often the mountain gives itself most completely when I have no destination, when I reach nowhere in particular, but have gone out merely to be with the mountain as one visits a friend with no intention but to be with him.”

The Living Mountain

6. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Donna Tartt may only write a book a decade, but they are worth every year of waiting. The Goldfinch is perhaps her most breathtaking novel. In this story of loss, survival, self-invention, and the hope that keeps us going, a young New Yorker grieving his mother’s death is pulled into a gritty underworld of art and wealth.

“But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illumined in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead”

The Goldfinch

7. “The Dead” by James Joyce

“The Dead”, the final short story of Dubliners, James Joyce’s iconic collection, contains one of the most beautifully written sentences in the English language. This is perfect prose: every word is immaculately arranged, flowing like the falling snow Joyce so delicately describes.

“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.“

“The Dead”

8. Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver

Especially here in Why I Wake Early, Mary Oliver truly gets to the beauty of life – she’s one of the finest poetic ambassadors for the natural world. I love how humble her poetry is, how there are no wasted words: “Watch, now, how I start the day / in happiness, in kindness”.

I pinned to the wall of my old house a hand-written version of the following poem, next to a map of Switzerland marked with the route I’d walked across. I saw it every morning, and it reminded me to get outside and be a part of the world.

The Old Poets Of China

Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe
that I do not want it. Now I understand
why the old poets of China went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.

9. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Paul Kalanithi was at the pinnacle of his career as a surgeon when he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer at just thirty-six. When Breath Becomes Air is the story of his transformation from a medical student to surgeon, to patient, seeking answers as to what makes a virtuous and meaningful life. With beautiful prose and powerful questions about what to do when a life is catastrophically interrupted, this is one of the most moving memoirs of the last decade.

“Human knowledge is never contained in one person. It grows from the relationships we create between each other and the world, and still it is never complete.”

10. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This stunningly ambitious novel (and Pulitzer Prize winner) is the story of a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths cross in occupied France during World War II. It’s one of those books that I finished and wished I could read again for the first time. Although, it has been a few years… a re-read could be just as magical.

On Reddit, one user writes, “It is just loaded with gorgeous imagery. The main character is blind, yet sees more than any sighted person ever could. It made me rethink the way I take in the world around me, from nature to politics.”

For more exquisite books, you might like my selection of the most beautiful books to treasure on your bookshelves for years to come, as well as my favourite beautifully illustrated books.

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“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.”

I’ve written before about the best feel-good classic novels of all time, but that leaves so many uplifting books that have been published more recently.

For this post, I thought about my favourite feel-good novels (and some memoirs) from the last few years. Some books are lighthearted and funny, others are wholesome comfort reads.

Here’s my selection of the best feel-good books to lift your spirits when you’re feeling low, remind you of the good in the world, and bring a smile to your face.

The best feel-good books for happy reading

1. A Place Like Home by Rosamunde Pilcher

If you’re looking for a feel-good cozy book, start with Rosamunde Pilcher’s writing. She’s best known for the timeless classic The Shell Seekers, but this heartwarming collection of short stories (published in 2021) also offers a perfect slice of romance, warmth, passion, and indulgence.

Sarah Maine, bestselling author of Beyond the Wild River shared, “An antidote to challenging times, this set of stories from a much-loved author has a comforting, nostalgic feel – cosy and reassuring – with Rosamunde Pilcher’s signature insight into domestic hopes and yearnings, taking us into a gentler world.”

2. The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller

This full-hearted novel is an easygoing read about Olivia Rawlings, a big-city pastry chef extraordinaire who discovers the true meaning of home when she escapes from the city to the most comforting place she can think of – the idyllic town of Guthrie, Vermont.

This is meant to be just a short getaway, until Margaret Hurley, the cantankerous owner of the Sugar Maple Inn, offers Livvy a job. Broke and not sure what else to do next, Livvy accepts – and realises that the most unexpected twists and turns in life can be the best things to happen to you.

3. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is one of the very best authors for feel-good reading. In a thread about the funniest books, one Reddit user recommended: “Anything from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. I must have re-read some of his books 5 times and yet I still find something new that makes me laugh out loud each time.”

Here’s a useful reading order guide for the Discworld novels to make it easier to jump into the books. The Colour of Magic is a great place to start immersing yourself in the Discworld – a magical world not totally unlike our own, somewhere between thought and reality.

4. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

An instant bestseller for 2022, this feel-good book about an unlikely friendship between a widow and a giant Pacific octopus is perfect for fans of books like A Man Named Ove.

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

It’s here at the aquarium that Tova meets curmudgeonly Marcellus, an octopus who knows more than anyone can imagine… and deduces exactly what happened on the night that Tova’s son disappeared. Now he needs to put his intelligence to use and figure out how to show Tova the truth before it’s too late.

5. The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

One of the true masterpieces of Japanese fiction, Yoko Ogawa turns mathematics into an elegant art in this beautiful, unpretentious and clever novel.

Each morning, the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to one another. Although the Professor’s mind is alive with mathematical equations, his short-term memory is a mere eighty minutes after a car accident threatened his life and ended his academic career some years ago.

With the clever maths riddles he devises – based on the Housekeeper’s birthday, her shoe size, or other little details – the two are brought together in a beautifully geeky classic love story that forms a bond deeper than memory.

6. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Described by Martha Wells as “an optimistic vision of a lush, beautiful world”, Hugo Award-winner Becky Chambers’s delightful Monk and Robot series gives us hope for the future (which, quite frankly, a lot of us could do with).

If you love Studio Ghibli-inspired books, I’d recommend grabbing a copy of A Psalm for the Wild-Built. In its unique world, it’s been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered together into the wilderness, and faded into myth and urban legend.

But one day, the life of a tea monk is turned upside down by a robot at their door. And most problematically, the robot wants an answer to the question of “what do people need?”

7. The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell

Tom Michell is in his twenties, free as a bird, and seeking adventure in South America around his teaching position in a prestigious Argentine boarding school.

What happens next is a little less ordinary: he rescues a penguin from an oil slick, and the penguin (who is soon named Juan Salvador) refuses to leave his side…. and returns back to school with him. It’s a delightfully uplifting and lighthearted memoir.

8. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

I read The Rosie Project all the way back in 2013 after it was published, and I still have such fond memories of this clever, warm, and delightfully weird love story.

Don Tillman is a brilliant yet completely socially inept professor of genetics who’s decided it’s time he found a wife. So he designs the Wife Project to find his ideal candidate, starting with a sixteen-page survey to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, and the late arrivers.

Unfortunately, Rosie Jarman drinks, smokes, and arrives late. She should be immediately disqualified as a candidate. And yet, somehow, Don is swept into the whirlwind that is Rosie as they collaborate on her own project to find her biological father.

9. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

As one of the most popular feel-good books of all time, this beautifully silly classic follows the galactic (mis)adventures of Arthur Dent, beginning one Thursday lunchtime when the Earth gets unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.

10. All Things Wise and Wonderful by James Herriot

In my selection of the best feel-good classic books, I knew I had to include All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. The Yorkshire vet’s memoirs have entranced generations of animal lovers since they were published, and they’re just as heartwarming today.

In this sequel, it’s wartime and James is training as an RAF pilot in bustling London. He’s far from the rolling hills, moody cattle, and curmudgeonly farmers of his day job as a vet in the Yorkshire Dales. He misses his dog, but most of all he misses his wife, Helen, who’s pregnant with their first child.

The questions of whether he’ll go to war and when he’ll get home are serious, but with its reflections of the land he loves and of friends old and new, this wonderfully cozy book is charming, uplifting, and characteristically funny.

11. The No. 1 One Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

In a Reddit thread about the best feel-good books, user bprflip shares: “When someone asks for a male-author-who-can-actually-write-a-female-lead, this book lands. It’s about someone getting by and making the world better, in incremental yet personal ways”.

If you enjoy following the investigations of Precious Ramotswe, Botswana’s premier lady detective, you’re in luck: this is the first in a series of twenty-three books by Alexander McCall Smith.

12. Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

I included TJ Klune’s most popular book, The House in the Cerulean Sea, in my list of the most wholesome books. This more recent release is a warm hug of a book for troubled times, perfect for fans of the feel-good hit A Man Called Ove or NBC’s The Good Place.

Wallace spends his life at the office, working and correcting colleagues. Then a reaper collects him, and he’s dead. Even after death, he refuses to make time for fun and friends, but as he drinks tea and eats scones with Hugo, the owner of an unusual tea shop, he wonders if he should do things differently.

With just one week until he must pass through the door to the other side, Wallace sets about living a lifetime the right way.

13. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Okay, so bear with me. This cozy feel-good book is about an Orc Warrior who opens a coffee shop. It’s a fun, incredibly lighthearted, and comfy read about following your dreams into new and unfamiliar places. It’s slice-of-life meets modern fantasy, and that turns out to be delightful.

Genevieve Gornichec, author of The Witch’s Heart, writes: “Take a break from epic battles and saving the world. Legends & Lattes is a low-stakes fantasy that delivers exactly what’s advertised: a wholesome, cozy novel that feels like a warm hug. This is my new comfort read.”

14. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Though Enzo cannot speak, he understands everything that happens around him as he bears witness to the story of his human family, observes how they nearly fall apart, and manages to bring them back together.

With humour and heartwarming dedication, and despite what he sees as his own limitations as a dog, Enzo comes through heroically to preserve the Swift family in this wholesome feel-good book.

15. The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman

From the bestselling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, The Garden of Small Beginnings manages to be funny and heartwarming but also thoughtful and poignant.

As an intimate journey of a young mother moving on from grief, this quirky novel unlocks the door to Lilian Girvan’s life as an illustrator, parent, sister, budding gardener, and widow as she puts the pieces of her life back together.

The post 15 of the best feel-good books to brighten your day appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

It’s my exploration of the art of courageously building a life – uniquely, boldly, and without turning away from challenges, flaws, and failures. One part of that is accepting, respecting, and loving your body as it is.

I feel like it’s so common: beating yourself up for not being perfect, even if that’s a totally unattainable goal (and if you reached it, you’d probably still feel unhappy anyway.)

Honestly, I don’t even know what my body really looks like – I’ve had a dysmorphic view of it for so many years. So now, I try and look beyond what the mirror is showing me and think about what my body gives me. Strength, flexibility, movement, power…. there’s so much.

In my own very individual case, focusing on getting stronger has helped me the most – whether that’s hiking in the mountains, gradually working up to deadlifting my bodyweight, or going to my local bouldering gym a few times a week. (Building muscle and feeling less delicate required some mental recalibration, but overall it’s been incredibly positive.)

Books have helped too, of course. Scroll down for some of my favourite books to read when you’re feeling insecure about your body to help you nurture more kindness and love towards yourself.

“You are not your body. Your looks do not determine your worth. But your body is your home. Your forever home. There is never any reason not to treat it with the most respect and gentle kindness. Honour the incredible vessel you have been gifted to enjoy this world in. Say the most loving and tender things to yourself and your body. Pour love into the parts of you that don’t conform to society’s narrow definitions of what a human being should look like. Be the most wonderful friend to yourself. Even if you’ve spent years or decades hating your beautiful, powerful body, that can stop now. The rest of your life can be loving and gentle and unceasingly kind.“

Your Life in Bloom by Lucy Fuggle

Books to overcome insecurity and love your body as it is

1. Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver

For when you’re feeling insecure, perhaps the best reminder that you will never be as young and strong as you are now is from Barbara Kingsolver:

“When I was in my thirties I had these square hips left over from being pregnant and I just hated it. I kept thinking, ‘All those years before, I had a perfect glamour-girl body, and I didn’t spend one minute appreciating it because I thought my nose had a bump on it.’

“Now that I’m old, my shoulder hurts and I don’t sleep good and my knuckles swell up and I think, ‘All those years in my thirties and forties I had a body where everything worked perfect. And I didn’t spend one minute appreciating it because I thought I had square hips.’”

2. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

This is the bestselling story of Eleanor, who never thought that life should be better than fine. It’s a warm and uplifting novel about a wonderfully unique heroine whose weirdness and wit make for an irresistible journey as she meets Raymond, the bumbling, unhygienic, and incredibly kind-hearted IT guy from her office.

“Did men ever look in the mirror, I wondered, and find themselves wanting in deeply fundamental ways? When they opened a newspaper or watched a film, were they presented with nothing but exceptionally handsome young men, and did this make them feel intimidated, inferior, because they were not as young, not as handsome? Did they then read newspaper articles ridiculing those same handsome men if they gained weight or wore something unflattering?”

3. Your Good Body: Embracing a Body-Positive Mindset in a Perfection-Focused World by Jennifer Taylor Wagner

This book is one of the few on this list that isn’t just about overcoming insecurity to love your body, but also about moving and fuelling it.

During her 16-year health and wellness journey, starting at 336 pounds, Jennifer felt the anguish of torment from peers and strangers, let the scale dictate her moods, and cried herself to sleep all because of her “imperfect” body.

But ultimately, Jennifer realized that to overcome the negative feelings about her body, she needed to start with her mind. Before anything else, she had to let go of all the expectations of perfection.

4. The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

This quote will say more than anything I can write about why to read this book:

“Racism, sexism, ableism, homo- and transphobia, ageism, fatphobia are algorithms created by humans’ struggle to make peace with the body. A radical self-love world is a world free from the systems of oppression that make it difficult and sometimes deadly to live in our bodies.”

5. Bossypants by Tina Fey

If you just want a laugh about how silly it all is, give Bossypants a read. Or a listen – the audiobook is great. I love this section about the unrealistic beauty standards fuelling our insecurity:

“Ah ha ha. No. I’m totally messing with you. All Beyonce and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful. Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”

6. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Okay, so this book is less about body image and more about embracing your uniqueness. But romance books with autistic, imperfect, and refreshingly normal characters? Yes, please.

I love Helen Hoang’s writing – and I love how her characters have so much depth to them beyond their looks and diagnoses.

The first in her series is The Kiss Quotient, the story of Stella – an incredibly capable data analyst with a great wardrobe… but a complete lack of experience in the dating department. So she hires a professional.

“All the things that make you different make you perfect.”

7. More than a Body: Your Body is an Instrument, Not an Ornament by Lexi and Lindsey Kite

Oh, how I love this book title. Read this to remind yourself that positive body image isn’t believing your body looks good – it is knowing your body is good, regardless of how it looks.

“Girls learn the most important thing about them is how they look. Boys learn the most important thing about girls is how they look. Girls look at themselves. Boys look at girls. Girls are held responsible for boys looking at them. Girls change how they look. Boys keep looking. The problem isn’t how girls look. The problem is how everyone looks at girls.”

The post 7 of the best books for when you’re feeling insecure about your body appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

In Zen: The Art of Simple Living, Shunmyo Masuno draws on centuries of wisdom to apply the essence of Zen to modern life in clear, practical, easily adopted lessons–one a day for 100 days.

Like The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim – a book I’ve celebrated before on the blog – Zen: The Art of Simple Living is a delicately stunning little hardback that is just as loveable for its beautiful illustrations as its wise and gentle words.

“Zen is about habits, ideas and hints for living a happy life,” Shunmyō Masuno writes. “A treasure trove, if you will, of deep yet simple life wisdom.”

It’s a book to remind you how going outside to watch the sunset can make every day feel celebratory, spending time barefoot can strengthen your body, and lining up your shoes after you take them off can offer more than just tidiness.

Turn to a new page every day, read it in one go, or – my favourite option – flick through it when you’re in need of some simple living inspiration.

Just subtle shifts in your habits and perspective

That’s all you need to live simply

You don’t need to go to the ancient Japanese capitals of Kyoto or Nara; you don’t need to climb Mount Fuji; and you don’t need to live near the ocean. With really only minor effort, it is possible to savour the extraordinary.

A renowned Zen Buddhist priest and gardener, Shunmyō Masuno’s unique background shines through in the book.

“I find that encountering a Zen garden can convey far more about Zen concepts than reading any number of texts explaining the philosophy,” he writes as the book begins.

As an accompaniment to reading Zen: The Art of Simple Living, set aside a few minutes to gaze at some of Shunmyō Masuno’s zen garden designs.

Shunmyō Masuno realises that some Zen ideals aren’t all that accessible to the non-monks among us. The Art of Simple Living forges an uncomplicated path around this – such as with “mountain dwelling,” a lifestyle idealized by many Japanese people.

“It is considered the most beautiful way to live, and is sometimes referred to as life sequestered from the world,” writes Shunmyō Masuno. It may seem like a distant daydream, but we can adopt many elements of “mountain dwelling” quite simply:

Reading while listening to the sounds of birds and the rush of water. Enjoying a drink of sake while gazing at the moon’s reflection in your glass. Communing with wildlife. The ability to live with a free mind, accepting things for what they are.

“Consider putting into practice the concept of ‘seclusion in the city’“, adds Shunmyō Masuno. “A place where you can disconnect from other people and spend time by yourself. A place in nature where you can regain mental freedom. A few moments of seclusion can illuminate the path forward.”

Shunmyō Masuno’s other advice is similarly easy to apply to our own lives. The first lesson in the book: make time for emptiness. “Making time for not thinking about anything – that is the first step towards creating a simple life.”

Lesson 2: wake up fifteen minutes earlier. “Are we really so busy? Aren’t we the ones who are pushing ourselves to hurry?” responds Shunmyō Masuno to the common reason against leisurely early mornings. It’s when we’re most stressed and overscheduled that time for ourselves really counts:

Especially when things are hectic, try waking up fifteen minutes earlier than usual. Lengthen your spine, and take slow breaths from the point below your navel – the spot we refer to as the tanden. Once your breathing is in order, your mind will naturally settle into stillness as well.

Then, while you enjoy a cup of tea or coffee, look out the window at the sky. Try to listen for the warbling of little birds.

How peculiar – just like that, you create space in your mind.

When eating, pause after every bite (lesson 11). “There is a direct link between mind and body. When you hone your mind, your renewed vitality naturally shows in the body as well.” “Food is what creates both your body and your mind.”

Some favourite lessons for simple living from Shunmyō Masuno

• 8. Put pen to paper with care
• 13. Seek out your favourite words
• 14. Pare down your belongings
• 15. Arrange your room simply
• 17. Exhale deeply
• 20. Seek out the sunset
• 21. Don’t waste time worrying about things you can’t control
• 23. Breathe slowly
• 24. Don’t think of unpleasant things right before bed
• 25. Join your hands together
• 29. Don’t put off what you can do today
• 30. Try your best to do what you can now
• 31. Discover another you – find your inner protagonist
• 33. Take pleasure in your work – work is what brings out your inner protagonist
• 36. Simply immerse yourself – the tremendous power of being unfettered
• 47. Feel instead of think
• 49. Don’t let things go to waste
• 51. Don’t be bound by a single perspective
• 57. Appreciate your connection with things

If the world is not going the way you want it to, perhaps it is better to change yourself. Then, whatever world you encounter, you can move through it comfortably and with ease.

Zen: The Art of Simple Living is a reminder of the simplicity and beauty of life. This doesn’t mean it will require any less effort – as Shunmyō Masuno writes, “Life requires time and effort. That is to say, when we eliminate time and effort, we eliminate life’s pleasures. Every so often, experience the flip side of convenience.”

With time, effort, and a gentle and conscious approach to each day, we can slow down and take better care of ourselves as we move through life. Zen: The Art of Simple Living is a wonderful guidebook to helping us do just this.

Zen: The Art of Simple Living is available now to pick up, curl up with, lose yourself in its illustrations, and – like all great books – come out slightly different on the other side.

The post Zen: The Art of Simple Living as a beautifully illustrated book for self-care appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

When we forget to look after ourselves or feel we’re too busy, it all adds up and soon starts reflecting in our mental health, physical health, creativity, energy, and enthusiasm.

No matter how busy you are or how much you feel like you don’t need it, prioritise time for self-care. You need it and so does everyone else.

One of the best ways is to pick up a good book and indulge in a little bibliotherapy. I’ve written about the best books for anxiety, but here are some more of my favourite self-care books for relaxing with.

1. Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki

Before writing this article, I wrote about Goodbye, Things for a new project I’m launching, livewildly.co. As I said in that article, if ever there were a good time to read this book, it’d be this time of year.

When we’re being told to buy more and redeem coupons in the next 23 minutes (or else you miss out on your one shot of getting everything you never wanted), the best response is to remember what’s really important.

Buy less, declutter what you don’t need, and make more room to indulge in what makes your life fantastic.

2. Yoga for Life: A Journey to Inner Peace and Freedom by Colleen Saidman Yee

Take care of yourself by looking after your body and your mind. Yoga is one of the best ways to do that, and this is a great guidebook.

3. What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey

This book surprised me. I’d never read much of Oprah’s writing before, and I had no idea I’d highlight more sentences than not. It reminded me to savour life’s simple pleasures: to sit under the trees, drink coffee as slowly as possible, and have dedicated reading time in the evening as self-care to look forward to all day.

4. Gratitude by Oliver Sacks

This is one of my favourite tiny self-care books from one of my most loved writers – and every word in it is golden. Gratitude is a selection of essays from the end of Oliver Sacks’s life and is full of so much beauty, wisdom and art.

Read it, nourish yourself with regular time for self-care, and remind yourself what you’re doing here on earth.

5. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim

This book is on so many of my best-of lists (including calming books to help you relax and books to lift you up when you’re having a bad day) but it’s so deserving.

I wrote about The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down in a previous post, describing it as a simple and timeless guidebook of Buddhist wisdom for any challenge you might be facing right now.

“Surround yourself with close friends and share food and drink. Watch a silly movie. Find a song that speaks to your heart. Go somewhere you’ve always said you wanted to go – the Grand Canyon, the Camino de Santiago, Machu Picchu. All by yourself. Just you and the road. After spending time alone, go to your own sacred space. Close your eyes and clear your mind.”

6. How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh

It’s no surprise this book made the list. How to Love is a wonderful guide to taking care of yourself and others, and one I’ve been writing about a lot on the blog recently. The first step to taking care of yourself is sending a whole lotta love in your direction.

My posts on How to Love:

• 7 gentle pieces of wisdom from Thich Nhat Hanh on loving ourselves (How to Love Part 1)
• Thich Nhat Hanh’s guide to loving others (How to Love Part 2)

7. A Pukka Life by Sebastian Pole

I came across a copy of A Pukka Life in a bookshop when I was at university and fell in love with it. It’s from the founder of the Pukka tea company, Sebastian Pole, and is a guide to living well – a big one, especially if you get the lovely hardback.

It’s rooted in Ayurveda and alternative health, so I’d recommend it if you’re open to that, but there’s a lot of good advice for taking care of yourself in any case.

While The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down is focused on your mind and actions, think of A Pukka Life as the link to your body and health. I think both guides beautifully complement the other.

The post 7 soothing self-care books to relax and unwind with appeared first on Tolstoy Therapy.

My favourite book on love may well be Thich Nhat Hanh’s How to Love from his “Mindfulness Essentials” series. I’ve wanted to write about this book for some time, but when I compiled all of my notes and takeaways, I realised it’d need more than one post.

It’s a small book, but it’s packed with so many life lessons (and love lessons!)

So I’ve decided to make this into a series of three posts, starting here with loving ourselves, followed by loving others, and finally some takeaways on appreciating and finding a home in our bodies. I’ll publish those over the next week.

To begin with, let’s enjoy some of Thich Nhat Hanh’s lessons on being loving towards ourselves.

1. When we feed and support our own happiness, we are nourishing our ability to love

By giving ourselves love, we have the most to give back to our loved ones. Come home to yourself – accept who you are right now, appreciate the life running through your body, and own your place on the planet.

Pay attention to the feelings you have about yourself before opening up more to others. Of course, that doesn’t mean ignoring your loved ones now. But I do think that the more we focus on our own self-care, the richer the gifts of presence and kindness we’ll give to others.

“Once you know how to come home to yourself, then you can open your home to other people, because you have something to offer. The other person has to do exactly the same thing if they are to have something to offer you. Otherwise, they will have nothing to share but their loneliness, sickness, and suffering. This can’t help heal you at all.”

2. Become more of you every day

Make it a goal to “become yourself one hundred percent”, even if – or especially if – that means being vulnerable. Admit your weaknesses to your loved ones and open up about what you’re struggling with:

“Open your mouth and say with all your heart and with all your concentration that you suffer and you need help”.

3. We’re worthy – right now, without doing anything differently

Being able to love ourselves isn’t something to do tomorrow, or next week, or next year. There’s no goal post to reach before you can appreciate and take proper care of yourself. You can nourish yourself with a kind word or small act of self-care right now.

“Trust that you have a good and compassionate nature. You are part of the universe; you are made of stars. When you look at your loved one, you see that he is also made of stars and carries eternity inside. Looking in this way, we naturally feel reverence.”

4. Not taking the time to understand ourselves can cause us trouble in relationships

6.  How to train ourselves for love

“If we consume toxic magazine articles, movies, or video games, they will feed our craving, our anger, and our fear. If we set aside time each day to be in a peaceful environment, to walk in nature, or even just to look at a flower or the sky, then that beauty will penetrate us and feed our love and our joy.”

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