100 books like The Art of Exceptional Living

In this book, I loved the way the author explains the creative process and what it takes to engage your muse and catch ideas. In a different way from The War Of Art, I learned what holds us back from expressing ourselves creatively and how we can overcome this fear of being seen.

Elizabeth Gilbert shares stories and philosophies about how to be more creative every day in a funny and optimistic way.

Now turning to the human body, Bryson continues his long tradition of combining loads of engaging, thoroughly researched information with ironic humor.

He dissects his subject system by system, starting with the normal structure and function of the skin and eventually moving to the “nether regions.” He follows with chapters on what can go wrong and what can go very wrong. Whereas other books focus on single systems, e.g., skeleton or gut, The Body is broader in its scope but understandably not so thorough.

For a single book to heighten a reader’s marvel and understanding of the human workings, this is the one.  

This book introduced me to the powerful concept of “upper limit problems” which helped me see some of the self-sabotaging behavior I used to engage in (picking fights for no reason, finding things to be annoyed about, giving too many f*cks about silly things) for what it was.

The idea goes that we all have internal “thermostats” that regulate how much success, happiness, and fulfillment we allow ourselves. Then, as we get close to the upper limit of those self-set limits, we engage in sabotaging behavior to bring things back down to a level we are comfortable with.

This one concept alone changed my own behavior and helped me help others see where they might be “upper limiting”. An unexpected life-changing book.

Neil de Grasse Tyson is one of the most compelling writers of our times, and has an unsurpassed ability to make astrophysics digestible and still magical.

All of his work reminds us how incredible our universe is and this book in particular provides a “cosmic perspective” on some of the knottiest issues facing humanity so that you see the world differently and - perhaps - live in it differently too. 

We are all going to lose someone we love. We are all going to go through the pain of people we care about dying. We are all going to contemplate our mortality at some point and wonder if what we’re doing has much of a point, if we could do better, and if we could make life a little less painful somehow.

Keisha Blair lost her husband when they were both in their thirties, when their son was 8 weeks old. She shares what she learned about building from that wreckage in Holistic Wealth. The book puts the pain of loss front and center, and then offers insights from stories and interviews on how to take care of our money, our relationships, and our spirituality, and thus ourselves.

I read this book for the first time about five years ago, and my first thought when I finished it was, “Everyone who is going to die needs this book.” This is the best thing I’ve read on the personal choices around dying and supporting someone who is dying.

I love the clear, level-headed, plain-spoken, simple, and elegant text and the way that Tisdale uses personal storytelling and philosophical reflection to help us address what we might otherwise avoid. I will return to this book over and over as I support sick or dying friends, and you can bet it will be on my bedside table if I am ever diagnosed with a terminal illness.

If I had to bring my kids to one more trampoline park I was going to quit parenting. Until I decided to start jumping too!

Spoiler alert—it didn’t go well for my bladder and me, but it was filled with laughter and fun! In The Fun Habit, Mike Rucker convinces us that fun and play are not optional if we truly wish to thrive (I do!) and he shows us how to build in the time for it. He even brings fun to work and parenting!

This was one of the first books I ever read that showed me that there was an intelligent way to do self-help. I have always been interested in how to make it easier and more fulfilling to experience my human life, but I was always allergic to the watered-down or overly simplified takes of many self-help books out there.

But this book was well-reasoned, logical, rational, and smart, and it showed me that it was worthwhile to work on changing my perspective and my thinking without having to be delusional or in denial. It was the gateway book I needed at my most skeptical to start down the path of emotional and mental growth and self-improvement that transformed my life. 

I recommend this book because I am a survivor of the pre-social media era, where bikes and street lights reigned. The stark contrast of being a senior in high school, thinking I would never see my classmates again, to being a freshman in college and friends with the majority of them on Facebook was reminiscent of the Beagle Channel where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans meet; day and night. Watching their lives unfold twenty-plus years later has been an unexpected bonus.

With the unimaginable accessibility that social media has given, it also brought a version of myself that did not translate well online and thus weakened my connections over the years. The fear of judgment and being perceived increased, and reading Brene' Brown's book helped shed light on the involuntary actions of connection atrophy.

This book is one I will continue to read throughout my life to help my heart… show more.

This is an older book that traces the development of the American definition of happiness from the founding of the nation until the mid-twentieth century. Jones carefully illustrates that happiness transformed from a collective political concept to an individual moral entitlement. His reading of self-help texts shows that earlier Americans tried to achieve happiness by learning to conform themselves to the obligations imposed on them by others outside the self. In contrast, Jones’ investigation shows that the modern understanding of happiness demands individual liberation from the expectations of others, a feat achieved by listening to the internal desires of the self.