Audiobooks

Self-Help Audiobooks To Untrash Your 2018

Life comes at you fast, and when is there time for self-improvement? Thank god for self-help audiobooks that make the job easier.

Raych Krueger Dec 6, 2017

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Raych Krueger

Staff Writer

Raych has so many kids (like, two, but they’re super young, which makes it seem like there are more of them) and this really cuts into her reading time. She’s using her degrees in Early Childhood Education and English Literature to teach the toddler to read to the baby so she can get back to her trashy Victorian sensation novel, or whatever. She’s also teaching her kids to travel and eat broadly, mostly through example (Do As I Do is super important, you guys), and hasn’t gone a year without hopping on a plane since she was a teenager. She recently moved from the Canadian coast to the Canadian prairies, where it gets hella cold, and if not for the internet, she’d surely be dead. Blog: Books I Done Read Twitter: @raychraych

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It’s the new year! All of last year was hellfire; let’s make this one better, starting with ourSELVES. But life comes at you fast, and when is there time for self-improvement? Thank god for self-help audiobooks, facilitators of simultaneous self-improvement and household chores/commutes/lying down for a minute.

I know multitasking is supposedly inefficient, but so many hours of my life have been given over to unloading the dishwasher and walking to the store, and I’ll be damned if I’m not going to seamlessly mash a book into those times.

Memoirish self-help audiobooks, because the best tips and tricks come from someone who’s been there

Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman by Lindy West

If learning to love your body and living your best feminist life is on your to-do list.

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

Having a body in 2018 is FRAUGHT, but Roxane is wise as hale.

Year of Yes: How To Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun, and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes

I super love it when subtitles write the summaries for me. This is such an uplifting and joyous book! Shonda is a buoyant spirit, and her life advice is so, so good.

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

Jenny Lawson has been an incredible advocate for speaking out about mental illness, and for being gentle with yourself. Her memoirs are insightful and also HILARIOUS.

Relationship Goals

There’s No Good Card For This: What To Say and Do When Life is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love by Emily McDowell and Kelsey Crowe

Another subtitle that says it all. This is an excellent read for when someone close to you is struggling, or if you work in compassion industries, or know literally any other human persons.

How to Be an Adult In Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving by David Richo

Is mindfulness still a thing people do? It’s such a helpful practice, you guys, especially in relating to other people.

Organizing Your Life

I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time by Laura Vanderkampt

HOW DOES SHE DO IT you’ll never guess *clickbait clickbait clickbait click itttttt*

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

Being able to automate as many of your decisions as possible is such a time- and energy-saver.

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande

Gawande’s background is in medicine but this book is SO APPLICABLE to life and the universe and everything.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Parts of this book show its aaaaaaaage but I read it every few years in my 20s and it helped me sort out my priorities in life, so there’s that.

I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual by Luvvie Ajayi

Do you like being scolded and also made to laugh while being self-improved? I know I do.

Food

Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating and Enjoy a Balanced Relationship With Food by Susan Albers

Mindfulness again! But ugh, mindlessly eating a bunch of junk is my go-to soothing mechanism and makes me feel so rotten in my body and my emotions.

Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders

Thanks to that one chapter in Michael Pollan’s Cooked, and then this entire book, I’m a firm believer in the relationship between gastrointestinal health and overall health/mood, don’t @ me.

Making Your Living Space Not Be Trash

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

Disclaimer that I hated this book but UGH IT IS VERY POPULAR AND OBVIOUSLY RESONATING WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE so I dunno, ymmv.

The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living by Meik Wiking

This book wants you to buy cozy blankets and eat stew with friends.

Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better Than Your Mess by Rachel Hoffman

Thisssssss book is so good for people with real lives who *subtweet* can’t just take a day off to throw out half their stuff. Hoffman focuses on working around your own personal limitations, especially physical or mental illness.

Mood

Hardcore Self-Help: F*ck Anxiety by Robert Duff

Short and informal, this book is like an Intro to Dealing With Anxiety (Plus Swears).

Hardcore Self-Help: F*ck Depression by Robert Duff

Ditto, but…depression.

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Jamison

An oldie but a classic, and a wealth of coping strategies.

Mind Over Mood: Change the Way You Feel By Changing the Way You Think by Dennis Greenberger and Christine A Padesky

Recommended by the NHS for helping cope with anxiety and other mood disorders.

What are your favorite self-help audiobooks?