Spring Clean Your Life with These 9 Inspiring Reads

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo has a three-month waiting list. And the truly magical thing is, she knows where that waiting list is, because her desk isn’t covered by six-inch stacks of paper (how do we still have stacks of paper when we live in a digital world?!). In her international bestseller, Kondo takes readers step by step through the very specific KonMari method, which groups clutter by category and teaches readers to keep only items that “spark joy.” Gather, awaken, sort, and bibbidi bobbidi boo: you own your possessions, they don’t own you!

Brain Maker, by David Perlmutter
Neurologist and gluten-free guru Dr. David Perlmutter follows up his bestselling Grain Brain with a new message: trust your gut. It’s home to 100 trillion bacteria, aka the microbiome, and Perlmutter, among many others, is convinced it’s the key to health and wellbeing, even and especially when it comes to our brains. ADHD, Alzheimer’s, autism, and many other neurological disorders, says Perlmutter, are linked to the bugs in our guts. He’s out to save us from ourselves, armed with a brain-friendly diet and a six-step program for optimizing intestinal ecology.

Very Good Lives, by J.K. Rowling
This slim volume (just 80 pages), subtitled “The Fringe Benefits of Failure,” is the commencement speech Rowling delivered at Harvard University in 2008. It’s hard to associate one of the wealthiest, most successful, and most beloved authors of all time with failure, but before she was J.K., Rowling was Joanne, divorced single mother on the dole. With great humor and humility, Rowling revisits those dark times in order to find the light, exploring how failure in other arenas focused her on the ones that really mattered. While writing Harry Potter, Rowling worked as a researcher for Amnesty International, and she concentrates on her experiences there as a time of self-revelation and a discovery of deep empathy, an emotion we can only experience when we’ve felt our own failures. We all have a rock bottom, Rowling reminds us, but if we use it as a foundation, then the lives we build can be very good indeed.

The Road To Character, by David Brooks
At the end of the day, or the end of the long day we call life, which will matter more: your résumé or your eulogy? In his fourth and perhaps most personal book, New York Times columnist Brooks asks himself this question. On a quest for virtue—a quality easier to identify in others than to cultivate in oneself—Brooks selects historical, social, political, and philosophical exemplars of character, such as Dorothy Day, Frances Perkins, and Bayard Rustin. Through their examples he analyzes what it takes to be brave, kind, honest, and faithful. Some of Brooks’ models are surprisingly liberal choices for a generally conservative commentator, but character has never toed a party line.

A Bone to Pick, by Mark Bittman
Bittman has had a bone to pick with us for a long time, and it has to do with the way we eat. Positioning himself alongside progressive food journalists and chefs like Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Alice Waters, and Barbara Kingsolver, Bittman, always an accomplished cookbook author, has become an authority on the greater landscape of food production, distribution, regulation, and consumption. With this latest book, a collection of his New York Times columns, he raises his voice in the growing chorus loudly singing that what we eat affects our health and our planet. These are bite-sized but illuminating lessons on America’s complex food system.

The Power Playbook, by La La Anthony
La La Anthony made a name for herself as a VJ on MTV back in the days when MTV played music. She’s now an actress, reality star, and entrepreneur with cosmetic and clothing lines to her name. Her first book, The Love Playbook, shared secrets of her love life and marriage to NBA player Carmelo Anthony. Now she’s back with more life advice, this time focused on career. Anthony sees life as a game, and these are her rules: goals, no nonsense, no judgment, and hard work. If her last book was “how to snag a baller,” this is “how to become a baller yourself.”

O’s Little Book of Happiness
From the editors of O magazine—and, of course, O herself—comes this “little” (not quite pocket-sized but small enough to tote in a purse to the DMV, where you will surely need it) collection of short essays on the theme of happiness. All personal with a dusting of self-help, the articles are grouped by what you might call strategies for joy: Simple Pleasures, The Joy of Discovery, and Sharing Delight, to name a few. Featuring familiar names, like Elizabeth Gilbert, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Mary Oliver, and some not so familiar, this is some of the finest writing O has featured in its 15 years.

Better Than Before, by Gretchen Rubin
The bestselling author of The Happiness Project is at it again. We often think of habits as bad things, but in her new book, Rubin shows us how habits, as the scaffolding of our daily lives, can actually help us be happier, healthier, more organized, and more successful. While acknowledging that everyone is different, Rubin offers actionable strategies, such as monitoring, spotting loopholes, and making things convenient, to know and manage our own behavior, whether it’s transforming old habits or creating new ones. As usual, she brings her crackerjack research and reporting skills, as well as an appealing, down-to-earth tone and a willingness to use herself, and her friends, as guinea pigs.

David & Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
No one manages to make complex social science as clear and simple as Malcolm Gladwell. The New Yorker writer’s fifth book tackles the myth of the underdog. Like Rowling in her commencement speech, Gladwell is interested in the benefits of (perceived) failure, and he argues that there are counterintuitive advantages to disadvantage, and that strength and weakness can be different sides of the same coin. Armed with research and anecdotal evidence—each chapter follows a particular “David” case study, because Gladwell is at heart a storyteller—he makes a compelling case sure to empower those who feel they’re up against giants.
Shop the bookstore >