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🧠Spring Cleaning the Mind ✨
May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and what better time for a little spring cleaning of the mind? This list spans the full spectrum: therapy memoirs and boundary-setting bibles, mindfulness guides and midnight recipes, sharp science and softer humour. Whether you're looking for practical tools, a good cry, or just proof that you're not alone in the mess of it all, there's something here for you.
Consider this your permission slip to prioritise yourself — one page at a time.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone – Lori Gottlieb (Dear Therapist from The Atlantic)
When a personal crisis sends therapist Lori Gottlieb into therapy herself, she finds that the questions her own patients are wrestling with — meaning, connection, self-destruction, mortality — are exactly the ones she's bringing to her unconventional new therapist, Wendell. Told with warmth, humour, and surprising candour, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone offers a rare double-sided view of the therapy room: what it looks like from the couch, and from the chair.
The Mind Manual: Mental Fitness Tools for Everyone – Alex George
From mental health advocate Alex George, The Mind Manual is a practical, reassuring guide to understanding your own mental health — what's normal, what's not, and how to build genuine resilience. Covering everything from boundaries and self-compassion to when to seek medical help, it's packed with accessible tools designed to help you not just cope, but thrive.
My Inner Sky: On Embracing Day, Night, and All the Times in Between – Mari Andrew
A whole, beautiful life is only made possible by the wide spectrum of feelings that exist between joy and sorrow. In this insightful and warm book, writer and illustrator Mari Andrew explores all the emotions that make up a life, in the process offering insights about trauma and healing, the meaning of home and the challenges of loneliness, finding love in the most unexpected of places - from birds nesting on a sculpture to a ride on the subway - and a resounding case for why sometimes you have to put yourself in the path of magic. My Inner Sky empowers us to transform everything that's happened to us into something meaningful, reassurance that even in our darkest times, there's light and beauty to be found.
The Practice of Not Thinking: A Guide to Mindful Living — Ryunosuke Koike
Former monk Ryunosuke Koike draws on simple Zen practices to make a compelling case for thinking less and sensing more. The Practice of Not Thinking offers practical steps — how to breathe, listen, speak, even sleep differently — that quiet the mental noise behind anxiety and stress, and help you reconnect with the present moment.
52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time - Annabel Streets
It turns out how, where, and when you walk matters just as much as whether you walk at all. Drawing on the latest science, Annabel Streets explores 52 distinct ways to vary your daily steps — from cold-weather walks that build muscle to woodland strolls that improve sleep — and the surprising benefits each one unlocks. 52 Ways to Walk is a quietly revelatory handbook for anyone who wants to get more out of the miles they're already covering.
Reasons to Stay Alive – Matt Haig
What does it mean to feel truly alive? Aged 24, Matt Haig's world caved in. He could see no way to go on living. This is the true story of how he came through crisis, triumphed over an illness that almost destroyed him and learned to live again. It has helped millions of people do the same. Moving, funny and even joyous, these are the lessons Matt learned. His reasons to stay alive.
Midnight Chicken: & Other Recipes Worth Living For – Ella Risbridger
There are lots of ways to start a story, but this one begins with a chicken. Because one night, Ella found herself lying on her kitchen floor, wondering if she would ever get up - and it was the thought of a chicken, of roasting it, and of eating it, that got her to her feet and made her want to be alive. Midnight Chicken is the story of Ella's life in a Tiny Flat, and the food she cooked there. From roast garlic and tomato soup to charred leek lasagne or burntÂbutter brownies, she shares recipes that are about people, about love, about the things that matter every day. This is a cookbook-of-stories to make you fall in love with the world again.
The Book of Boundaries — Melissa Urban
Boundaries are easier said than done — which is exactly where Melissa Urban comes in. The Book of Boundaries offers more than 130 ready-to-use scripts for saying no (nicely) to bosses, partners, family, friends, and yourself, along with guidance for handling the guilt and pushback that inevitably follow. Practical, empowering, and long overdue.
Dopamine Nation — Dr Anna Lembke
Psychiatrist Dr Anna Lembke makes a compelling case that our relentless pursuit of pleasure — from social media to shopping to substances — is quietly making us miserable. Blending cutting-edge neuroscience with gripping case studies from her clinical practice, Dopamine Nation unpacks the pain-pleasure cycle driving modern addiction, and offers a path back to genuine contentment.
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? — Julie Smith
Clinical psychologist and online phenomenon Dr Julie Smith distils years of therapeutic expertise into an accessible, dip-in-and-out handbook covering everything from anxiety and low mood to self-confidence and motivation. Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? is exactly what it sounds like: the practical mental health toolkit most of us wish we'd had years ago.
You Don’t Understand Me: The Young Woman’s Guide to Life — Dr Tara Porter
Drawing on decades of experience as a psychologist, Dr Tara Porter writes directly to teenage girls and young women about the pressures, contradictions, and quiet struggles of growing up today. Warm, wise, and genuinely validating, You Don’t Understand Me covers everything from exams and friendship to love and self-worth — and doubles as an invaluable guide for the parents trying to understand them too.
My Mess Is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety — Georgia Pritchett
Multi-award-winning television writer and producer Georgia Pritchett knows a thing or two about anxiety. From worrying about the monsters under her bed as a child (Were they comfy enough?), to embracing womanhood, (One way of knowing you have crossed from girlhood to womanhood is that men stop furtively masturbating at you from bushes and start shouting things at you from cars. It's a beautiful moment), worry has accompanied her at every turn. This memoir is a joyful reflection on just how to live - and sometimes even thrive (sometimes not) - with anxiety.
We hope you’ve found something that piques your interest! Until next time.
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Happy reading, book friends!