Here are 100 books that Wabi Sabi fans have personally recommended if you like
Wabi Sabi.
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The books on this list arrived at different moments in my life, but each one helped me see myself, my body, and my relationship with food in a new way. Some taught me about habits. Others helped me understand compassion, emotional healing, boundaries, and personal growth. Together, they brought light to my journey from chronic dieting and self-criticism to greater trust, freedom, and body–mind harmony.
What I loved about this book is how practical and hopeful it is.
It was a powerful reminder that lasting change does not come from dramatic transformations, but from small, consistent actions repeated over time. The book reinforced the idea that meaningful results are often built through simple daily habits that may seem insignificant in the moment but create powerful change over the long run.
This perspective deeply resonated with me and reinforced my belief that sustainable transformation begins with small steps rather than perfection.
The #1 New York Times bestseller. Over 4 million copies sold!
Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don't want to change, but because you have the…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I’m deeply passionate about us all being happy and healthy at work. I’ve been this way ever since I was old enough to realise just how much time we would spend there! I grew up in a time filled with images of stressed out, chain-smoking professionals, where the word ‘executive’ was synonymous with ‘burnout’. I knew there had to be a better way. I’ve worked in mental health for twenty years and corporate wellbeing for over a decade and I love to combine those experiences to help people have their best day at work every day.
When you feel completely overwhelmed at work, with no time or headspace to reflect, then this book is extremely helpful.
I don’t use bullet journalling all the time, but it is my go-to system when I am swamped and want to regain a sense of control and purpose. If you have never journalled then this book is a fantastic resource to get you scribbling, noticing and shifting. Even without engaging in the journalling practice, this book is really motivational and gets you in the right mindset to achieve.
It’s a fantastic book for overcoming overwhelm and tackling your never-ending to do lists.
Transform your life using the Bullet Journal Method, the revolutionary organisational system and worldwide phenomenon.
The Bullet Journal Method will undoubtedly transform your life, in more ways than you can imagine' Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning
In his long-awaited first book, Ryder Carroll, the creator of the enormously popular Bullet Journal organisational system, explains how to use his method to:
TRACK YOUR PAST: using nothing more than a pen and paper, create a clear, comprehensive, and organised record of your thoughts and goals. ORDER YOUR PRESENT: find daily calm by…
I’m deeply passionate about us all being happy and healthy at work. I’ve been this way ever since I was old enough to realise just how much time we would spend there! I grew up in a time filled with images of stressed out, chain-smoking professionals, where the word ‘executive’ was synonymous with ‘burnout’. I knew there had to be a better way. I’ve worked in mental health for twenty years and corporate wellbeing for over a decade and I love to combine those experiences to help people have their best day at work every day.
I’ve worked for myself for a long time and it can be a lonely and all-encompassing business.
Rebecca Seal offers a companiable voice, backed by science, to help make working for yourself easier and more enjoyable. The examples given help normalise your own experiences and offer reassurance that everyone struggles at points and that’s ok.
This book again offers something practical to keep you focused on your values, why you do the work you do and how to make the most out of solo working.
“Kind, realistic, and genuinely helpful...Install a copy on whatever surface is functioning as your desk, and you may even feel a little bit less alone.” —The Observer (London)
A practical, accessible, and charming guide for finding joy while navigating your professional life working remotely from home—without losing your mind.
Like it or not, working alone is now the new normal. The COVID-19 pandemic may have accelerated the process, but the trend is clear—making a living outside the confines of a public workplace is here to stay.
For anyone who needs guidance on how to navigate working from a…
Mia Lark is running out of options. There is only one way to change the score: the fantasy planet Revivium.
Armed with the powerful magic in the helm and the friendly AI, Hex that goes with it, Mia throws caution out the window. It’s time to find the main guildhall…
I’m deeply passionate about us all being happy and healthy at work. I’ve been this way ever since I was old enough to realise just how much time we would spend there! I grew up in a time filled with images of stressed out, chain-smoking professionals, where the word ‘executive’ was synonymous with ‘burnout’. I knew there had to be a better way. I’ve worked in mental health for twenty years and corporate wellbeing for over a decade and I love to combine those experiences to help people have their best day at work every day.
This book got me thinking about how we need to adapt our lives to align with nature and how challenging this can be in the world of work.
When we have to set our alarm for the same time every day, commute in all weathers and adhere to our work, not mother nature’s, schedule then it can feel really tough. This book was thought provoking and got me thinking about mapping my work life balance across the seasons and the difference some simple adaptations to my life could make to my work.
An interesting and thought-provoking read, really well written.
In this paradigm-shifting health book, #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of The Whole30 and It Starts with Food reveals a powerful new program to help us feel happier, healthier, and less stressed.
Fatigue. Burnout. Weight gain. Disease. Despite seemingly endless programs designed to help us lose weight and regain our health, readers are more overworked, overtired, and overweight than ever.
In The 4 Season Solution, Hartwig reveals the four keys of health - sleep, eat, move, connect - and explains how we can reconcile the needs of our ancient bodies with the demands and complications of modern…
I’m a science journalist published in The Washington Post, Scientific American, The Atlantic, etc., and the author of bestselling Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100. I’m also a slightly obsessive parent who really cares about her family’s health—that’s how “Growing Young” was born. To write the book, I’ve read over 600 scientific studies, talked to dozens of scientists and had some experiments conducted on myself (some a bit painful, some rather fun)—and ended up changing my own outlook on what it means to live healthily.
When I traveled for research in Japan, one word I kept hearing was “ikigai”. Ikigai does not have a perfect equivalent in English, but is often translated either as “purpose in life” or “life worth living.” And, as science shows, it’s a very important reason for why the Japanese are among the longest-lived people on the planet. For me, García’s and Miralles’s well-written book was a rewarding deep dive not only into the Japanese culture but also into the science linking meaning in life, happiness, and longevity.
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • 1.5 MILLION+ COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
“Workers looking for more fulfilling positions should start by identifying their ikigai.” ―Business Insider
“One of the unintended—yet positive—consequences of the [pandemic] is that it is forcing people to reevaluate their jobs, careers, and lives. Use this time wisely, find your personal ikigai, and live your best life.” ―Forbes
Find your ikigai (pronounced ee-key-guy) to live longer and bring more meaning and joy to all your days.
“Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” —Japanese proverb
According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai—a reason…
I am the former Enterprise Editor of The Sunday Times and author of eight books about entrepreneurship, personal development and smart thinking. I first became interested in the idea of people taking control of their own destiny when I was a foreign correspondent and met many people who had decided to turn their back on the traditional 9-to-5 and seek a life of adventure and excitement instead, even though they didn’t have much money. I discovered people earning a living by making wine and running cafes and realised that we all have the ability to take control of our own destiny if we really want to.
I love this book partly because my publisher decided to take on one of my other books because he missed out on this one. If you compare the original cover of my book to Tim’s book you will see they have a very similar palm tree vibe!
But more than that, this book shows clearly how technology has made it possible to totally rethink the way we work and live, and free us up to have much greater control over both–and that’s very exciting.
A new, updated and expanded edition of this New York Times bestseller on how to reconstruct your life so it's not all about work
Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan - there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.
This step-by step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
Winner of the 2024 New Mexico - Arizona Book Award.
In this deeply researched novel of America's most celebrated outlaw, Mark Warren sheds light on the human side of Billy the Kid and reveals the intimate stories of the lesser-known players in his legendary life of crime. Warren's fictional composer…
I have read a ton of self-help books. A ton. I have a whole library of them – a bookcase of "shelf-help." And I have now written 7 of them as well! I love it when a little or a lot of the author’s story is woven into a self-help book as it demonstrates the author’s personal growth. I don’t need more self-help tools or trite suggestions. I want to feel emotionally connected and moved in a way that encourages me to reflect on and enhance my one precious life. For me, reading a well-written self-help memoir is one of life’s greatest joys.
The author's story is heart-wrenching yet uplifting, excruciating yet freeing, and extremely personal yet spoke to me in volumes. It is hard to pick out the wisdom I loved the most but from 'doing love' to busting out of 'just-a-box' to 'come back,' it is all that I needed to hear in these banana-pants crazy times. I have put on my bucket list to attend one of the author's retreats one day. Can't think of anything better than yoga, writing, and wine.
An inspirational memoir about how Jennifer Pastiloff's years of waitressing taught her to seek out unexpected beauty, how hearing loss taught her to listen fiercely, how being vulnerable allowed her to find love, and how imperfections can lead to a life full of wild happiness.
Centered around the touchstone stories Jen tells in her popular workshops, On Being Human is the story of how a starved person grew into the exuberant woman she was meant to be all along by battling the demons within and winning.
Jen did not intend to become a yoga teacher, but when she was…
I’ve lived with anxiety for most of my life. Whether it’s been with emetophobia (a phobia of vomit) or an intense bout of panic attacks, I know the story well. Now, as a psychologist, I’ve seen up close what works and what doesn’t. I love helping my clients and the audiences that I work with learn how to accept their anxiety, rather than try to make it go away. This is often counterintuitive at first but we can still live an empowered life, even with the anxiety present. When we do this, we’ve unlocked a whole new level of liberation where we can show up fully, worries and all.
This book seriously changed my life. Easter makes an incredible case for how we’ve gotten way too comfortable and how this is contributing to our overall anxiety.
My favorite part of the book highlights the Japanese concept of “misogi,” where we challenge ourselves to reach our mental and physical peak once a year. When I read this, it inspired me so much that I decided to run my first half marathon. This book will get you stretching yourself in exciting ways and it reminds you that your body and brain are way more capable than you’re giving yourself credit.
“If you’ve been looking for something different to level up your health, fitness, and personal growth, this is it.”—Melissa Urban, Whole30 CEO and New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Boundaries
“Michael Easter’s genius is that he puts data around the edges of what we intuitively believe. His work has inspired many to change their lives for the better.”—Dr. Peter Attia, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlive
Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wild—from the author of Scarcity Brain, coming in September!
As a kid, I dreamed of becoming a California beach lifeguard. Considering I grew up in Michigan, this was a rather aspirational choice. To my parents’ relief, my career goals shifted over time, as I realized my gift for writing. I became a journalist then went into marketing. But after years of cranking out corporate content, I (sadly) burned out on it, dropped everything, and became a recruiter. Within months, I missed writing – so much so that I started a career-related blog, which became a thriving business dedicated to helping people move their careers forward. Gratefully, this work led to an amazing assignment, writing Do This, Not That: Career.
It’s hard to not want instant gratification, especially in our “get what you want, and now” culture. We see the shiny objects and opportunities for a quick win, and we chase them. Unfortunately, as Dorie Clark maps out in The Long Game, this frenetic behavior isn’t helpful if you want to achieve big goals.
I discovered this book when life was starting to feel like a giant game of Whac-a-mole. Sure, I was achieving success, but I could never seem to find the time to get to a couple of long-range projects that really matter to me.
The Long Game gave me several tangible tips for staying focused on my long-term goals in a world that pushes me, and all of us, to grab for those immediate, more shallow victories.
It's no secret that we're pushed to the limit. Today's professionals feel rushed, overwhelmed, and perennially behind. So we keep our heads down, focused on the next thing, and the next, without a moment to breathe.
How can we break out of this endless cycle and create the kind of interesting, meaningful lives we all seek?
Just as CEOs who optimize for quarterly profits often fail to make the strategic investments necessary for long-term growth, the same is true in our own personal and professional lives. We need…
Ramon Ramirez’s Dog is a collection of essays written over the years about the adventures and misadventures, mostly outside but occasionally inside the diplomatic career of a U.S. ambassador. Common threads weaving the stories together are a desire for a life well-lived, balancing career with family and friends, keeping physically…
I’m reading books that are centered on science and behavior and health. After decades of research on the interplay between genes and the environment, I had a strong foothold on the genetic part, but I needed to understand the environment part to make any sense of it all. This research has broadened my horizons exponentially. We know that genes are immutable, for the most part… but parts of the genome are mutable—and we can shape our lifestyle/behavior to improve our health.
The stronger our relationships, the more likely we are to live happy, satisfying, and healthier lives. In fact, research reveals that the strength of our social connections can predict our health throughout the life span. Insights in this book are drawn from the personal lives of participants in the Harvard Study of Adult Development, as they were followed for each year of their adult lives, and supported by research data from this and similar studies.
Relationships of all kinds—friendships, romantic partnerships, families, coworkers—contribute to a happier, healthier life. According to The Good Life, it’s never too late to strengthen the relationships you have—and never too late to build new ones.
'This captivating, powerful book shows us scientifically and practically how to define, create and most importantly live the good life' Jay Shetty
What is the key to a good life?
It is a question that preoccupies us all and one that the longest and most successful study of happiness ever conducted strives to answer. In this groundbreaking book, directors of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, bring together over 80 years of research to reveal the true components of a happy, fulfilled life.
