Books for Self-Care

We know in this time of lockdown many people are missing the opportunity to browse our bookshelves, particularly with Christmas round the corner. So we’re introducing new curated book recommendation lists, to help you find the perfect gifts for friends and loved ones.

Today’s list is ‘Books for Self-Care.’ This year has been difficult for everyone but for some lockdown has been particularly difficult. In this time of stress, isolation and uncertainty, taking care of your well being has never been more important. Whether it’s a gift to help yourself through this difficult time or to support a loved one, we hope these books will provide some comfort. Browse and buy today.

Books for Self-Care

Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
Paperback RRP £9.99
Wintering is a poignant and comforting meditation on the fallow periods of life, times when we must retreat to care for and repair ourselves. Katherine May thoughtfully shows us how to come through these times with the wisdom of knowing that, like the seasons, our winters and summers are the ebb and flow of life.

This Book Will Make You Kinder: An Empathy Handbook by Henry James Garrett
Hardback RRP £12.99
In this timely, insightful guide, Henry James Garrett lays out the case for developing a strong, courageous, moral kindness, one that will help you fight cruelty and make the world a more empathetic place. Building on his academic studies in metaethics and using his signature sweet animal cartoons, Henry explores the sources and the limitations of human empathy and the many ways, big and small, that we can work toward being our best and kindest selves.

I Feel You: a journey to the far reaches of empathy by Cris Beam
Paperback RRP £14.99
What is empathy? Is it just one thing? Is it inherited? Can it be taught? Is 'corporate empathy' an oxymoron? And is empathy always a desirable human value? Cris Beam tackles these questions and more as she journeys from neuroscience labs, to classrooms; from a reconciliation program in the US, to South Africa, where the first children born since Apartheid are coming of age. Along the way, she examines her own past and family relationships, and discovers what it means to 'feel you' - and how we can all apply empathy in our complex lives

And Now For The Good News...: The much-needed tonic for our frazzled world by Ruby Wax
Hardback RRP £14.99
You would be forgiven for thinking 2020 was not the year for a book about good news. But now might be the time we need it most. Ruby Wax is here to reassure us with her brand new book, And Now For The Good News. This is her positivity prescription, showing us the green shoots of optimism and change forcing their way up and into the sunlight.

The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk
Paperback RRP £10.99
The effects of trauma can be devastating for sufferers, their families and future generations. Here one of the world's experts on traumatic stress offers a bold new paradigm for treatment, moving away from standard talking and drug therapies and towards an alternative approach that heals mind, brain and body.

Kind Words for Unkind Days: A guide to surviving and thriving in difficult times by Jayne Hardy
Paperback RRP £12.99
We all have days where we feel like the world is getting us down. But here's the thing - you're not alone. From helping us see what strong really looks like, to what to do when you have no energy for self-care; Jayne Hardy shows us that even on our most difficult days, a little kindness can go a very long way.
With easily digestible advice and soothing messages to help you find brightness on even the darkest days, this is the book we all need.

What a Time to be Alone: The Slumflower's guide to why you are already enough by Chidera Eggerue
Hardback RRP £12.99
In What A Time To Be Alone, The Slumflower will be your life guru, confidante and best friend. She'll show you that being alone is not just okay: it's just about the best freaking thing that's ever happened to you. As she says, 'You're bad as hell and you were made with intention.' It's about time you realised. Peppered with insightful Igbo proverbs from Chidera's Nigerian mother and full of her own original artwork, What A Time To Be Alone will help you navigate the modern world.

The Trans Self-Care Workbook: A Coloring Book and Journal for TRANS and Non-Binary People by Theo Lorenz
Paperback RRP £14.99
If you're transgender, non-binary, or any other gender under the wide and wonderful trans umbrella, this book is for you. A creative journal and workbook with a difference, this book combines coloring pages celebrating trans identity, beauty and relationships, with practical advice, journaling prompts and space for reflection to promote self-affirmation and wellbeing.

Good Food for Bad Days: What to Make When You're Feeling Blue by Jack Monroe
Paperback RRP £7.99
Food writer and anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe presents Good Food for Bad Days, a collection of cheering, tasty and easy meals to make when you're low in spirits. Eating properly is one of the biggest hurdles when you're feeling low, so these recipes (dubbed 'depressipes' by Jack) give you everything you need in a dish; they are inexpensive, simple and filling so that cooking and eating a nutritious meal doesn't seem like an impossible task.

All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks
Paperback RRP £10.99
"The word "love" is most often defined as a noun, yet...we would all love better if we used it as a verb," writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and feminist skewers our view of love as romance. In its place she offers a proactive new ethic for a people and a society bereft with lovelessness. As bell hooks uses her incisive mind and razor-sharp pen to explore the question "What is love?" her answers strike at both the mind and heart. In thirteen concise chapters, hooks examines her own search for emotional connection and society's failure to provide a model for learning to love. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for the individuals and for a nation.

You Are Enough: How to love the skin you're in & embrace your awesomeness by Harri Rose
Hardback RRP £9.99
Have you ever told yourself that happiness will come after the next diet? That life will be better once you've finally achieved your body goals? What if you stopped relentlessly trying to change yourself, and started to accept your body as it is? Join the growing movement by millions of people who are rejecting diet culture and harmful beauty standards in order to love the skin you're in.

Happy Fat: Taking Up Space in a World That Wants to Shrink You by Sofie Hagen
Paperback RRP £9.99
In Happy Fat , comedian Sofie Hagen shares how she removed fatphobic influences from her daily life and found self-acceptance in a world where judgement and discrimination are rife. From shame and sex to airplane seats, love and getting stuck in public toilets, Sofie provides practical tips for readers. Part memoir, part social commentary, Happy Fat is a funny, angry and impassioned look at how taking up space can be radical, emboldening and life-changing.

On Connection by Kae Tempest
Hardback RRP £9.99
Drawing on twenty years' experience as a writer and performer, award-winning poet, rapper and storyteller Kae Tempest explores how and why creativity - however we choose to practise it - can cultivate greater self-awareness and help us establish a deeper relationship to ourselves and the world. Personal, hopeful and written with piercing clarity, On Connection is a meditation on creative connection and call to arms that speaks to a universal yet intimate truth.

How to Be Hopeful: Your Toolkit to Rediscover Hope and Help Create a Kinder World by Bernadette Russell
Hardback RRP £12.99
Whether we're grieving or afraid, worn down by everyday troubles or relentless bad news, there is always hope. As an expert on the multiple benefits of hope and kindness, Bernadette Russell reveals how hope can be nurtured by all of us, even in uncertain times.; Filled with cutting-edge research, timeless philosophy and tales of triumph over adversity, this uplifting and essential toolkit will give you all you need to cultivate hope in yourself, your community and in our future.; With plenty of 'try this' tips and case studies of everyday 'hope heroes', How to Be Hopeful will inspire you to live and to act with renewed hope for a more compassionate world.; Hope is the fuel that transforms our lives.

The Well Gardened Mind: Rediscovering Nature in the Modern World by Sue Stuart-Smith
Hardback RRP £20
In a powerful combination of contemporary neuroscience, psychoanalysis and brilliant storytelling, The Well Gardened Mind investigates the magic that many gardeners have known for years - working with nature can radically transform our health, wellbeing and confidence. Sue Stuart-Smith tells brilliant, illuminating stories of people struggling with stress, depression, trauma and addiction, from asylum seekers to veterans, inner-city young people to the retired. This is a glorious book of science, insight and anecdote that shows how our understanding of nature and its restorative powers is only just beginning to flower.

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
Paperback RRP £9.99
The world is messing with our minds. What if there was something we could do about it? Looking at sleep, news, social media, addiction, work and play, Matt Haig invites us to feel calmer, happier and to question the habits of the digital age. This book might even change the way you spend your precious time on earth.

Browse the list and buy the books today.

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