Books like Hardcase — picked by fans

I was pulled in by the concept of the birth of a private eye.

Easy Rollins, a guy with no background in law enforcement, a day laborer, accepts money to find a missing woman, and a shamus is born. Did I mention that Easy is black, and has to deal with all the prejudices and difficulties that entails?

In addition to being a great whodunit of who and why, it’s a cool trip riding along with Easy on his maiden voyage into gumshoe land.

Child’s Jack Reacher is a classic knight errant, strong, resourceful, and courageous who has headlined dozens of books. But this book stands out because, in the finale, he squares off with a formidable opponent with a hook for a hand.

Reacher struggles to stay conscious during this standoff because he has a woodworking nail stuck in his head, shrapnel from a shotgun blast, that is inexorably shutting down his brain and body. I will remember that passage for quite some time.  

Parker’s Spenser is a reliable tough guy with a good heart. A former soldier and heavyweight boxer, he tends to make short work of anyone foolish enough to fight him. But in Small Vices, he is shot by the villainous Gray Man and left for dead. After he’s discharged from the hospital, Spenser has to readjust to a gravely weakened body as he struggles to physically and mentally recover from his wounds.

This journey brings a new level of emotional depth to the series and lends added resonance to round two with the Gray Man, during which Spenser describes himself as Lazarus, “back from the grave to tell all.”

This book takes place in Boston during the broiling hot summer of ‘74. The protagonist of Lehane’s sublime novel is Mary Pat Fennessy, a hard-bitten mother from the Southie projects who took a look at this list of tough guys, chuckled, punched the #5 guy in the throat, and took over his spot.

Mary Pat’s teen daughter is missing, the Irish mob may know more about it than they’re letting on, and all the while, the desegregation of the public schools has turned the city into a violent racial hotbox. In Small Mercies, Mary Pat navigates searing issues of loyalty and justice. Race and grief, and as intense pressures converge on both her and the city, she responds the only way she knows how—by coming out swinging. 

I love this book because it actually changed my life. The book unpacks a worldview (made obvious by the title—that we are each made up of many parts and that none of them are bad), a psychological theory, and a set of personal practices.

It is the book my friends are most likely to tell me changed their lives as they tried out one of the practices and learned new things about themselves that freed them from self-judgment, self-doubt, or just a habit about themselves that was mysterious and unhelpful. There are very few books that have offered a methodology so new and so helpful that they instantly improved my life, but this one did.

Milton Erickson is known as one of the greatest hypnotherapists of all time. Reading his work inspired me to go into the field of hypnosis and biofeedback, decades ago. I feel so grateful to him. This book is an amazing inspirational collection of some of his cases and how he helped so many people to heal. Thirty years ago, after I was thankfully able to restore my own health after almost dying at the age of 26, through the inspiration of Dr. Erickson and others, I created my own hypnotherapy program, in hospitals and corporations, where I was able to help over 200,000 people to lose weight, stop smoking and get healthy.

I have always found profound inspiration in the teachings of Carl Rogers, who I consider a philosophical mentor.

His principle of 'unconditional positive regard' resonates deeply with me, both personally and professionally. This concept emphasizes the importance of offering unwavering support and acceptance to another person, which I believe is crucial in discovering, revealing, and unlocking the beauty and potential that lies just beneath the surface of conscious awareness.

This is one of my all-time favorite books for introducing a non-dual approach to therapy. I love that each chapter is written by a different well-known spiritual teacher (Adyashanti and Peter Fenner) or an experienced therapist (e.g., Stephan Bodian, Dorothy Hunt, Lynn Marie Lumiere, and John Welwood). 

These practitioners describe the healing power of the unconditioned mind in their own way (with a diversity that I truly enjoy). They explore the question: What happens when therapists act as a “sacred mirror” for their clients' essential nature? "How might a therapist reflect back to their clients not only the contents of awareness—e.g., thoughts, feelings, and sensations—but also awareness itself? Such provocative and important questions, and how delightful to hear the responses presented in this book!

I devoured this book and its main premise: that to be a therapist is a great art and a deep discipline. Yalom is the inspiration for many psychology and psychotherapy students and trainees, and for good reason. He is the kindly, wise father many of us wish we had.

I adored this book for its insights into psychotherapy and the therapy room and for the tenderness with which Yalom treats his patients. He was also one of the first professionals to openly and publicly share his own emotions and thoughts about his patients and being a therapist. He powerfully puts forward the ‘human first, therapist second’ philosophy, one that informed my work fundamentally. He takes chances, loves his patients sincerely, and, as a result, was a hugely respected clinician who taught as well as he practiced. It is a great read for patients and therapists alike.  

An absolutely gorgeous autobiography that never for a moment bogs down in the details, but soars above the timeline of Yalom's life by concerning itself chiefly with glimmers of insight, events that have lived on in his unconscious and formed him into the healer he became. Like all of Yalom's best work, I found myself reading it slowly, savoring every word. The honesty, if you open yourself to it, and accept that he really is telling you the honest to god truth, smacks you in the face like few authors I've ever encountered. I kept thinking, if I do enough psychotherapy for long enough, I might be able to pull off this degree of self-knowledge.