Many of us set goals at the beginning of the year, but as the busyness of life pulls us in different directions, it's easy for our focus and priorities to shift. The middle of the year offers many of us a natural moment to pause, reflect, and begin again. These thoughtful books invite us to reconnect with what matters most, through creativity, curiosity, spiritual reflection, and a renewed sense of purpose.
For the reader who wants to go analog
The average smartphone user spends the equivalent of 61 to 80 days per year on their device—and we aren't just physically attached to our phones; we're emotionally attached as well. New research reveals how all of us are turning to our phones more and more to soothe and distract us, which numbs our empathy, diminishes the quality of our relationships, and drains the part of our brain required for creative focus. The Power in Your Hands invites readers to reckon with their attachment to technology through understanding the connections between compulsive smartphone behavior and their unique attachment style in relationships. Who will you become when you put down your phone and pick up your life?
For the reader learning what healthy looks like
Emotionally Sober and Unimaginably Good
Millions of adults today grew up in households where one or both parents struggled with problem drinking, substance use disorder, or other dysfunctional behavior. Perhaps the most toxic aspect of such a background is that it can become an excuse for not finding true happiness and personal fulfillment. Emotionally Sober and Unimaginably Good explores how DeMatteo broke free from her unhealthy emotional patterns shaped by living her childhood with an alcoholic parent. Unlike clinical takes on addiction and codependency, her story offers a raw, personal perspective that speaks directly to adult children longing for healing and emotional freedom.
For the reader exploring life's deeper questions
The Ache in Your Heart Is Holy
We ache when we are confronted with longings, desires, disappointments, sorrows, and the unspoken hurts that come with being human. Yet so few of us know how to be with and attend to these aches, or the complexities that surround them. The Ache in Your Heart Is Holy is an accessible and practical guide for being with your ache. Rather than ignoring, denying, or rushing to fix, this book is an invitation to stay, to listen, and to trust. Each ache is a sacred opportunity to help you remember the truth of who you are.
For the reader ready to stop playing by everyone else's rules
Despite being the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the US, Black women face systemic barriers that threaten to derail their dreams, including lack of funding, racial and gender bias, and a lack of senior advocates in corporate spaces. Blending heartfelt storytelling with field-tested strategies, Never Wear Red Lipstick introduces you to the Paint Your Lips Red principles: ten truths to help Black women embrace their power and lead with boldness. From overcoming betrayal in the workplace to prioritizing wellness, from claiming spiritual inheritance to redefining what it means to be a real boss, this book speaks to every woman who's been told she has to shrink to succeed.
For the reader who's tired of fixing everyone else
Many of us can regurgitate why healthy boundaries and saying "no" are important. So why are we still over-accommodating and actively participating in imbalanced relationships that fuel anxiety and exhaustion? In Serial Fixer, psychotherapist and wellness consultant Leah Marone will help you break old habits of fixating on—and fixing—the problems of others. Examine your habitual need to control, understand why you feel so invested in other people's drama, and explore ways to release perfectionism's grip.
For the reader ready to rewrite their story
We absorb the world around us through stories. It's how we make sense of our surroundings, our communities, and ourselves. But the stories we tell ourselves are not an end-all, be-all. Instead, they're all part of a larger, ongoing, unfinished narrative—one that we must continually refresh. That's where Story Work comes in. Through essays and prompting questions, GG Renee Hill invites readers to breathe new life into the stories we carry. Hill invites us to the transformative practice of creative self-discovery through storytelling—treating our life experiences as creative material that we have the power to shape.
For the reader who wants to try something new
In today's grind culture, hobbies become side hustles. Work creeps into leisure time. Perfectionism reigns. We look up to experts, and we look down on amateurs. But what if being a total amateur is actually a good thing? In Defense of Dabbling is a delightful jaunt into how to resist grind culture and do the things you love, even if you're not any good at them.
For the reader setting a new intention
Beginning in around the third century CE, a group of monastics known as the desert mothers and fathers retreated to the deserts of northern Egypt, Syria, and Palestine to pursue lives of silence and prayer. A key phrase, repeated often among the sayings of the desert mothers and fathers, is "Give me a word." Fast-forward many centuries to the present day, and we find the practice of seeking a word being reclaimed by the spiritually minded in new ways. Give Me a Word will gently lead you through the process of receiving your word, testing its resonance, and embracing its meaning.
For the reader who wants their work to matter
Many of us want to advocate for causes we care about—but which ones? We want to work for change—but will the emotional toll lead to burnout? In The Lightmaker's Manifesto, activist Karen Walrond shares strategies to help you define the actions that bring you joy, identify the values and causes about which you are passionate, and put them together to create change.
For the reader who wants to be busy with what matters
How nice it would be to clear the calendar—to just stop doing so much stuff. Except kids get sick and the work project awaits and elderly relatives need care. No matter how well you hack it, manage it, slice or dice or delegate it: in some seasons of life, busyness is a given. The solution, writes Rachelle Crawford, is not to merely declutter your calendar or unsubscribe from the busy life. The trick lies in learning how to be busy. How to Be Busy is a lighthearted, practical guide for how to live your deep, meaningful, unhurried life—right in the middle of your busy one.
For the reader who wants to listen more deeply
Between the Listening and the Telling
Stories tether us to what matters most: our families, our friends, our hearts, our planet, the wondrous mystery of life itself. Yet the stories we've been telling ourselves as a civilization are killing us: Fear is wisdom. Vanity is virtuous. Violence is peace. In the pages of Between the Listening and the Telling, storyteller, author, and activist Mark Yaconelli leads readers into an enchanting meditation on the power of storytelling in our individual and collective lives.
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