Books like The Power of Your Other Hand — picked by fans

This book changed my life. It answered my questions about why students so often didn’t like school despite so many efforts to force them to! (Yeah, it sounds dumb to me too, now.) 

Since reading this book, I've completely changed the way I teach. Inspired by these insights, I have written several books. I've become courageous about being like Alfie, who is an engaging writer, completely fearless, and committed to human well-being and all the ways our institutions, including schools, contribute to or undermine the best of our spirit—individual and collective.

Even when people in authority challenge me, I am inspired to speak the detailed truth, so much of it learned from this book! (It also has many well-digested sources.)

My private art school offers classes exclusively in basic to advanced drawing techniques, with a focus on achieving varying degrees of realism across a range of subjects.

To accomplish this, I have designed a method that utilizes exercises and structured instruction. However, I am cautious not to impose too many limitations with my Monart® Method because I believe that too much structure can hinder students' creativity. 

Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw was the perfect addition for my lesson plans. The loose style effectively captures the essence of the subject while encouraging students to maintain a realistic interpretation.

The speed that is involved in his quick sketching technique makes it possible for the student to practice shape and feeling. 

The book provides clear and simple instructions with lots of illustrations.

As a speaker at a conference on Howard Gardner's work on the "Nature of Intelligence," I learned that drawing what you are learning can result in eight times faster and longer retention of the information.

This inspired me to use drawing for learning. Nancy Margullies' book on using diagram drawings, to remember information, was invaluable to me.

As I trained teachers in my drawing methods across the U.S. and Canada, they reported improved student learning and retention. They suggested integrating the method into other subjects, such as drawing parts of a flower during a science lesson, which led to increased comprehension and retention.

I applied Margullies' Mind Mapping system to conference information and shared it with my drawing students, who successfully used the technique for homework and school subjects.

I personally recommend this book because it is a must-read for anyone dealing with students who struggle with learning or underperform in certain subjects.

Over the course of my 45-year career, I have encountered hundreds of individuals, including myself, who have struggled with math despite being highly skilled in drawing or art.

Howard Gardner, the head of Harvard University's Project Zero, has been a leader in the field of intelligence research since the late 1970s. His work rendered IQ tests irrelevant for measuring intelligence in education.

Understanding Gardner's work is critical to understanding how individuals function, and it has changed the way I interact with difficult students.

Reading this book gave me a new perspective on intelligence and helped me see it in a completely different light.

Having grown up with a mentally ill and emotionally abusive mother, I had never considered emotional abuse a form of emotional neglect.

My mother used silent treatment and contempt to control me and forced me to tend to her emotional needs while ignoring mine. She shared inappropriate personal information and used me as her confidante while offering me no support or guidance. This book helps explain the deep hole left from the mother wound and how to heal from the lack of emotional support.

I read Homecoming before becoming a therapist and at the height of struggling with inner conflicts, the sorts that were born from a neglectful childhood. John Bradshaw taught me how to have those necessary conversations that I would have had as a child, if only I had been an adult. As a child, we haven’t got the experience, skills, or authority to point out what we need to feel protected, supported, or loved. I learnt a lot from following the exercises in Homecoming; one very important realisation was that I needed to re-parent myself and I did the best I could.

If I could have a conversation with John Bradshaw, I’d thank him for his book because without it I would probably have repeated some of the damage done to me, on my own child.

I loved this book because it was Glennon Doyle before she became “Glennon Doyle.”

This book still has dirt under its nails. Her honesty about addiction, self-sabotage, marriage, and spiritual confusion felt genuinely risky at the time, and you can feel that on the page.

What stayed with me was her willingness to admit how lost she was without trying to rush the reader toward wisdom or resolution. It reminded me that transformation doesn’t start with clarity—it starts with telling the truth about how bad things actually feel.

I love the stories. Author Robert Greene’s stories about Semmelweis and William Harvey show the nasty consequences of ‘not suffering fools gladly.’

His notion of 10,000 hours to achieve mastery cuts through the challenges I face with each new book: I hate the feeling of not knowing what I’m doing, dislike feeling out of control, and get antsy when something I’m working on doesn’t fall into place easily.

Suck it up because that’s precisely how I feel each time I think about my new book on the early life of King David.

Interiors expert and host of Interior Design Masters (BBC), Michelle has a fascinating view on interiors, honed through her many years working on magazines alongside her personal interests in Buddhist philosophy, sustainable design, and ‘clean’ living within the home. She goes deep into her research within this title, examining potential pathogens that might be lurking in a typical household (and advising on what to do to mitigate them), alongside thoughtful prose on how you can identify both your aesthetic and wellbeing needs and decorate accordingly.

There’s no end of books out there on mindfulness and meditation. What I love about meditation teacher, writer, and thinker Sebene Selassie’s book is how funny, personal, awkward, and honest she is about her journey. Each chapter delivers a new perspective on how you—how we all—are connected, how disconnection is at the core of our suffering, and how the one way to get back to a sense of belonging is through the body, the breath, and presence. Selassie is that friend who gently leads you to look inward and understand the power and joy of connection.