100 Books Like The Happiness Myth

Hochschild is a sociologist, exploring modern types of jobs that commercialize human emotions. Think of flight attendants or bill collectors: people who have to smile at clients or remain polite, even if these clients make that very hard. Hochschild shows the impact of such acting; I use her insights in my work on sex work.

Published in 1997, DeBecker offered something no one else I was reading came close to: an explanation of warning signs that precede violence that are so subtle they leave many people with a bad feeling about a situation, for example, with a stranger, but no idea why they feel that way. The temptation then is to override the gut feeling: “What is wrong with me? It’s the middle of the day and this nice man just wants to help me carry my groceries up to my apartment.”

DeBecker himself is a fascinating figure. He grew up with a heroin-addicted mother who waved a gun around frequently and finally shot his stepfather before committing suicide when he was 16. DeBecker learned to rely on small, subtle clues to tell when she was dangerous and when she was not. After her death, he was taken in by Rosemary Clooney, the mother of… show more.

I love this book because it explores a new way of understanding human emotions. When you laugh, cry, or scowl with anger, you often assume that the emotions you're feeling are the same as everyone else’s. Lisa Feldman Barrett explains that this is not necessarily the case, according to the new science of emotion.

She clearly describes the research, including her own, that shows that emotions are not hard-wired at birth but are constructed by our brains and our bodies as we go through life. It means that we can be the architects of our emotional lives, and the implications for society are profound. Reading this book has excited me and given me a great deal of hope and optimism about how we can have more agency over our emotional lives. 

I feel like this book was the best college course I never got to take. Meeting The Shadow is a collection of essays from psychologists, therapists, scholars, and artists who have scoured the depths of the psyche. I love the work of Carl Jung, but I’ve found it quite difficult to parse through entire books of his. This book however, by drawing from such a diverse group of thinkers makes shadow work incredibly accessible, captivating, and illuminating. It is also formatted into specific sections like Emotional Suppression, Sexuality, The Dark Side of Spirituality, The Psychology of Evil, The Shadow of Politics, Dream Analysis, Shadow in Gender, and Owning Your Dark Side Through Art & Creativity. There’s something for everyone in here, every chapter a dark and alluring cave inviting you to explore its harrowing and majestic landscape. I can’t recommend this book enough for anyone being called to look within…or… show more.

For me enduring joy has been elusive and too easily stolen. 

This book provides an active course for capturing it and holding on to it. One area that hit the bullseye for me was the need for laughter in the maintenance of joy. I was rewarded as a child for being serious and responsible. 

As a result, they are my learned defaults. The truth, however, is that they are not my natural way. Those close to me always note that I am funny, but if you are just meeting me or encounter me in a work setting, you would never guess this. 

Unleashing laughter in all settings has become my new goal.   

This is a unique book in that it integrates the learnings from the great philosophies and religions with modern science to create a powerful story of how you and I can live a happy and a meaningful life.

The Author takes you on a great journey illuminating how our thinking and how our mind and body influence our beliefs and ways of being. He puts together a compelling new story that you can embrace to be on your Journey to Best Self. This book was so good that I have read it three times since I bought it.

Everyone values being happy – it’s something we all want and should want!

Haybron’s little book has so much wisdom packed into it about what happiness is and how best to get it. He draws on philosophy and psychology to argue that the feeling of happiness is actually made up of three different emotional states: attunement, engagement, and endorsement. 

He then explains the research about good strategies for getting into these positive emotional states.

My students have really enjoyed this book and it contains one of my favorite lines from a book of philosophy: “don’t be an asshole in the pursuit of happiness.”  

Do you know of any effective leaders who are chronically unhappy? I don’t, which is why I’m rounding out my recommendations with a non-leadership book.

I give this book to anyone I’ve mentored over the years. This is a book I reread yearly. It clearly lays out what’s needed to have a fulfilling life and the qualities that all happy people have in common.

Where Happiness Begins is a clever picture book that depicts happiness as a character that can take any shape and form. Sometimes it is hard to find. And sometimes it is right there with us. The illustrations are bright and beautiful. To me, we should read it frequently as a gentle reminder that happiness always begins within ourselves.

As his students, me included, call him, Tal is a remarkable teacher. His compact book of one hundred and sixty-nine pages is filled with valuable and applicable knowledge on being happier.

He draws a lot from his young life as an athlete and into adult life as a Harvard professor, along with his wellbeing research. His book is set up in three parts: defining happiness, applying happiness, and meditations on happiness. Tal uses “time-in” to have readers stop and reflect on a question relevant to the reading material, which helps one better consider the material more thoughtfully.

The other thing about Tal as a teacher is his approach. It aligns greatly with my ideas about happiness, hence why I study his work. He, more specifically in his happiness studies program, fosters cultivating one's "wholebeing." A term I was already using when I came across his teachings. For me, happiness is… show more.