100 books like The Dance of Anger

By Harriet Lerner,

Here are 100 books that The Dance of Anger fans have personally recommended if you like The Dance of Anger. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

Arielle Ford Author Of The Love Thief

From my list on growing your soul and opening your heart.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always loved fairytales, whimsical stories, and mysteries. Plus, I’m passionate about mind-expanding, heart-opening books that offer me new ways to understand myself and the Universe we live in. And I particularly like books that show me ways to have more of what brings me joy and pleasure. When I can get all of this in a novel I’m in heaven.

Arielle's book list on growing your soul and opening your heart

Arielle Ford Why did Arielle love this book?

I was already familiar with two of the four agreements: “doing my best” and “keeping my word” but the idea of “never making assumptions,” and “not taking anything personally” were mind-blowing and they were a big gift to my nervous system. 

I now understand that no one is waking up in the morning plotting ways to make me miserable and if I am miserable it is often because I took something personally or made a wrong assumption!

By Don Miguel Ruiz,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked The Four Agreements as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

•  A New York Times bestseller for over a decade
•  Translated into 46 languages worldwide
 
“This book by don Miguel Ruiz, simple yet so powerful, has made a tremendous difference in how I think and act in every encounter.” — Oprah Winfrey

“Don Miguel Ruiz’s…


Book cover of Eat Pray Love

Wakisha (Kisha) Stewart Author Of Sonata for a Damaged Heart: A Young Mother's Journey of Survival After a Near Fatal Heart Attack

From my list on discovering a path to a better you.

Why am I passionate about this?

Who am I? Well, I'm a mother of three, a nurse, a wife, a survivor of a postpartum heart attack, and a new author. I'm living proof that life can throw some curveballs, but I'm also proof that you can bounce back stronger than ever. I'm the conductor of the chaos train, the healer with a heart of gold, and the one who holds it all together when things get crazy. I'm juggling carpool, advocacy, and dinner plans with a smile on my face and love in my heart. I'm embracing every moment of this second chance at life, living it to the fullest, and loving every minute of it.

Wakisha's book list on discovering a path to a better you

Wakisha (Kisha) Stewart Why did Wakisha love this book?

This book is a captivating journey of self-discovery and inner strength that resonates deeply with anyone seeking meaning and fulfillment in their lives.

Through Elizabeth Gilbert's immersive storytelling, we are transported across three continents as she embarks on a quest for self-discovery following a difficult divorce. Her journey is both inspiring and transformative in a way that is very similar to my own memoir. 

What sets this book apart is the unwavering honesty and vulnerability. Another aspect that inspired how I wanted to write my story. She fearlessly confronts her fears, doubts, and insecurities, inviting readers to join her on a deeply personal journey of introspection and growth. Throughout the book, her willingness to embrace discomfort and uncertainty ultimately leads to a deeper understanding of herself and the world around her.

At its core, it is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of…

By Elizabeth Gilbert,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Eat Pray Love as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

_________________ OVER 15 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE _________________ 'Eat, Pray, Love has been passed from woman to woman like the secret of life' - Sunday Times 'A defining work of memoir' - Sunday Telegraph 'Engaging, intelligent, and highly entertaining' - Time _________________ It's 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She's in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they're trying for a baby - and she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own…


Book cover of The Wisdom of the Enneagram: The Complete Guide to Psychological and Spiritual Growth for the Nine Personality Types

Karen Meager Author Of Rest. Practise. Perform.: What elite sport can teach leaders about sustainable wellbeing and performance

From my list on helping you banish burnout forever.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I worked in clinical practice as a psychotherapist, I worked with many burnt-out clients and always found it frustrating that the conventional wisdom was to take time off or stop working, which is just not practical (or desirable) for many people. I was always looking for alternative things people could do to help themselves. Then I experienced burnout myself, and whilst it was dreadful, I learnt first hand how to put all of this into practice, hence my research on the topic. I now work with people and organisations in high pressured, innovative environments where the focus is on preventing burnout rather than recovering.

Karen's book list on helping you banish burnout forever

Karen Meager Why did Karen love this book?

I resisted the enneagram, thinking that it wasn’t scientific enough, but now that I understand it, I haven’t looked back.

Knowing how understanding yourself is an essential part of avoiding burnout, I was looking for a personality typology that didn’t just put me in a box but gave me a path to growth and development. This book does just that for me, with tailored development areas for each personality type.

By Don Richard Riso, Russ Hudson,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Wisdom of the Enneagram as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The first definitive guide to using the wisdom of the enneagram for spiritual and psychological growth

The ancient symbol of the Enneagram has become one of today's most popular systems for self-understanding, based on nine distinct personality types. Now, two of the world's foremost Enneagram authorities introduce a powerful new way to use the Enneagram as a tool for personal transformation and development. Whatever your spiritual background, the Enneagram shows how you can overcome your inner barriers, realize your unique gifts and strengths, and discover your deepest direction in life.

The Wisdom of the Enneagram includes:

Two highly accurate questionnaires…


Book cover of Women Food and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything

Julie S. Kraft Author Of The Gift of Recovery: 52 Mindful Ways to Live Joyfully Beyond Addiction

From my list on women growing in recovery.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a licensed marriage and family therapist and have been helping addicts thrive in recovery since 2009. My first book, The Mindfulness Workbook for Addiction, has sold over 70,000 copies and been published in several countries. Books can offer inspiration, comfort, support, and relief during recovery. In my writing, as in my work with clients, I hope to offer a path to greater fulfillment and joy after addiction.

Julie's book list on women growing in recovery

Julie S. Kraft Why did Julie love this book?

So many women in recovery from addiction have also experienced disordered eating. The food behaviors might exist alongside your other addiction, be your primary concern, or emerge in recovery as a new attempt to cope with the feelings that are left behind. Geneen Roth is, in my opinion, the guru of emotional eating recovery. All of her many books are worth exploring, but I chose this one because of its deeply spiritual message. While she doesn’t use the word “mindfulness” explicitly, Roth encourages a mindful relationship with food and with your body: “Because when you evoke curiosity and openness with a lack of judgment, you align yourself with beauty and delight and love—for their own sake” (p. 106).

By Geneen Roth,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Women Food and God as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Embraced by Oprah, the #1 New York Times bestselling guide that explains the connection between eating and emotion from Geneen Roth—noted authority on mindful eating.

No matter how sophisticated or wealthy or broke or enlightened you are, how you eat tells all.

After three decades of studying, teaching, and writing about our compulsions with food, bestselling author Geneen Roth adds a powerful new dimension to her work in Women Food and God. She begins with her most basic concept: the way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. Your relationship with food is an exact mirror…


Book cover of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger

Kim Imas Author Of Beast Mom

From my list on women and anger.

Why am I passionate about this?

We talk a lot about the big public events that expanded the #MeToo movement so astronomically, like the election to the US presidency of a man who bragged about assaulting women, and the allegations made against Harvey Weinstein. But I think most American women have other, more personal beefs that originate from their being a woman. I, for one, was shocked at how unnecessarily difficult it was to be a new mother in the US. Other places support this vulnerable group much more than we do here, and living that disparity angered me—like, for example, when my husband exhausted what little parental leave he had available before our twins were even released from the NICU.

Kim's book list on women and anger

Kim Imas Why did Kim love this book?

Women have been told, likely from time immemorial, to keep their anger under wraps or, even better, to not feel angry in the first place.

But what if our anger isn’t the unhealthy, unhelpful, ugly thing we’ve been told that it is? What if, as Chemaly suggests, our anger is the very thing we require if we want to pursue and achieve equality and justice, for women and for society more broadly?

Which is a lot like a question I ask in my book: What if anger is actually women’s superpower?

By Soraya Chemaly,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Rage Becomes Her as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A conversation-shifting book urging 21st-century women to understand their anger, embrace its power, and use it as a tool for positive change

'How many women cry when angry because we've held it in for so long? How many discover that anger turned inward is depression? Soraya Chemaly's Rage Becomes Her will be good for women. After all, women have a lot to be angry about.' GLORIA STEINEM

Women are angry, and it isn't hard to figure out why. We are underpaid, overworked, thwarted and diminished. The assertive among us are labelled bitches, while the expressive among us are considered shrill.…


Book cover of Verge

Theresa Griffin Kennedy Author Of Talionic Night in Portland: A Love Story

From my list on to help you discover what makes people tick.

Why am I passionate about this?

When I think of who I am, as a writer and a human being, I remember the words of prolific Portland poet Dan Rapheal, who wrote the foreword to my book of poetry, Blue Reverie in Smoke: “...the reader must look carefully to get a full picture of the poet herself—tender, no nonsense, quietly observing and juggernauting to make things as she thinks they should be.” I’ve never forgotten Dan’s astute appraisal of me, and it surprised me. It seems that's how I’ve always beensomeone who quietly observes, never unmoved by what I see, just trying to make sense of it, sometimes successful in that endeavor, and oftentimes, not successful at all. 

Theresa's book list on to help you discover what makes people tick

Theresa Griffin Kennedy Why did Theresa love this book?

This book of short fiction is a riveting account of how the marginalized outcasts of society struggle to find a voice, often not finding anything other than the realization of their own loneliness and social isolation. Many dynamics are shown in this book, such as a kind of unquenchable desire for new experience, even when it harms us, and the struggle to contend with class, gender, age, and continued sexual hunger. Do we invite troubled persons into our lives if they might harm us, or at least carve profanity into our coffee tables, or do we walk away? I loved this book because each story and character captures what it's like to live on the edge, and this is done without judgment, malice, or any form of indifference. I had so many favorite stories from this collection, just rest assured it is totally worth your time and the money to…

By Lidia Yuknavitch,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Verge as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

LONGLISTED FOR THE STORY PRIZE

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Bustle and Lit Hub

A fiercely empathetic group portrait of the marginalized and outcast in moments of crisis, from one of the most galvanizing voices in American fiction.

Lidia Yuknavitch is a writer of rare insight into the jagged boundaries between pain and survival. Her characters are scarred by the unchecked hungers of others and themselves, yet determined to find salvation within lives that can feel beyond their control. In novels such as The Small Backs of Children and The Book of Joan, she has…


Book cover of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger

Kim Imas Author Of Beast Mom

From my list on women and anger.

Why am I passionate about this?

We talk a lot about the big public events that expanded the #MeToo movement so astronomically, like the election to the US presidency of a man who bragged about assaulting women, and the allegations made against Harvey Weinstein. But I think most American women have other, more personal beefs that originate from their being a woman. I, for one, was shocked at how unnecessarily difficult it was to be a new mother in the US. Other places support this vulnerable group much more than we do here, and living that disparity angered me—like, for example, when my husband exhausted what little parental leave he had available before our twins were even released from the NICU.

Kim's book list on women and anger

Kim Imas Why did Kim love this book?

This 2018 release had particularly good timing: By the end of the previous year, the #MeToo movement had exploded into a global phenomenon and women the world over were pissed. I was one of them, and I was doing a lot of soul-searching about the growing rage inside of me.

Good and Mad helped me understand the broader context of what I was feeling: why and how women have been taught that anger is unbecoming and unacceptable, how society holds us to that standard, and how some brave women—like Mamie Till—have turned this reality into an opportunity to create change.

By Rebecca Traister,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Good and Mad as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Journalist Rebecca Traister's New York Times bestselling exploration of the transformative power of female anger and its ability to transcend into a political movement is "a hopeful, maddening compendium of righteous feminine anger, and the good it can do when wielded efficiently-and collectively" (Vanity Fair).

Long before Pantsuit Nation, before the Women's March, and before the #MeToo movement, women's anger was not only politically catalytic-but politically problematic. The story of female fury and its cultural significance demonstrates its crucial role in women's slow rise to political power in America, as well as the ways that anger is received when it…


Book cover of Overcoming Passive Aggression

Chloe Carmichael Author Of Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety

From my list on anxiety from a psychologist's perspective.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm Dr. Chloe Carmichael, clinical psychologist and USA Today bestselling author of Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety (endorsed by Deepak Chopra). As a clinical psychologist, a lot of people ask me how to get rid of their anxiety. They're often surprised to learn that actually, we don't always want to get rid of anxiety—because the truth is that anxiety actually brings many benefits, if we know how to unlock them. Anxiety’s healthy function is actually to stimulate preparation behaviors. In this book, I share nine tried and tested tools with step-by-step instructions and real life examples to help readers harness the healthy power of anxiety.

Chloe's book list on anxiety from a psychologist's perspective

Chloe Carmichael Why did Chloe love this book?

As a clinical psychologist, I can say that Overcoming Passive Aggression is a must-read book! A lot of people who are anxious become passive-aggressive because they’re very afraid of even the most minor confrontations in life. People tend to resort to passive aggression when they don’t feel they have the skills or the confidence to handle conflict directly. Realizing this is an important first step—an essential next step is to start building the skills and confidence to handle things differently.

By Tim Murphy, Loriann Hoff Oberlin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Overcoming Passive Aggression as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Hidden anger that comes out indirectly can undermine relationships between friends, family, and colleagues. When people feel compelled to conceal their true beliefs and emotions, there can be serious physical and psychological results for everyone involved. Dr. Tim Murphy and Loriann Oberlin offer a clear definition of passive-aggression and show readers not only how to end the behaviour but also how to avoid falling victim to other people's hidden anger. This revised and updated edition offers essential guidance for dealing with problems in the workplace and at school avoiding the pitfalls of social media, texting, and online communication and when…


Book cover of Anh's Anger

Jessica Sinarski Author Of Hello, Anger

From my list on children’s stories about anger.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been a peacemaker, so anger can be a really uncomfortable emotion for me. I think that’s true of lots of people! As a mom and mental health counselor, it was important to me to write a book that honored the protective nature of anger. Feelings give us important information. Putting this book together felt like a big puzzle to solve, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. Bright and engaging illustrations, relatable characters, and tips for grown-ups in the back to help us all say hello to our anger and whatever might be hiding underneath! 

Jessica's book list on children’s stories about anger

Jessica Sinarski Why did Jessica love this book?

“I’m the part of you that comes out when things don’t go your way.” I think we can all relate to that big, red monster that shows up when we feel mad. With beautiful, layered illustrations, Ahn’s Anger cleverly externalizes anger, sharing many of the feelings and sensations that may be involved. It also normalizes the time and presence that anger sometimes requires of us. Sending a child away when upset, which does occur in this story, may not be a great strategy for all families. It’s worth noting, however, that the grandfather does make the first move to restore the relationship and comfort Ahn.

By Gail Silver, Christianne Kromer (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Anh's Anger as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

This wonderful and engaging 1st book in a trilogy that includes Steps and Stones and Peace, and Bugs and Understanding, gives children and caregivers a concrete practice for dealing with anger and other difficult emotions.

In Anh’s Anger, five-year-old Anh becomes enraged when his grandfather asks him to stop playing and come to the dinner table. The grandfather helps Anh fully experience all stages of anger by suggesting that he go to his room and, "sit with his anger." The story unfolds when Anh discovers what it means to sit with his anger. He comes to know his anger in…


Book cover of When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry

Amanda Driscoll Author Of Little Grump Truck

From my list on dealing with feelings.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have always been an artist and avid reader, but my passion for picture books began while reading them with my children. That passion grew into a career as an author/illustrator. For me, the best picture books speak honestly and with integrity. They affirm children’s feelings and help them deal with those feelings. Children are incredibly perceptive and unflinchingly honest. All of my picture books are different, but honest emotions are at their core. After I lost my husband—and my children lost their father—I experienced firsthand how strong and emotionally complex children are. I believe the books on my list effectively and honestly address children’s feelings, and are wonderful resources for caregivers.

Amanda's book list on dealing with feelings

Amanda Driscoll Why did Amanda love this book?

This book is spot-on for children dealing with emotions. (And what child isn’t dealing with emotions??) The story revolves around a relatable situation: Sophie has a tantrum after her sister takes a toy. It doesn’t diminish or sugar-coat Sophie’s anger. Kids will identify with Sophie as she explodes, then runs into the woods. Her anger resolves through mindfulness—very helpful for kids when they have tantrums. The natural world comforts Sophie and she returns home in a calm mood, ready to be with her family, who welcomes her home. Ultimately, this is a reassuring story of unconditional love.

By Molly Bang,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Category: Feelings"Oh is Sophie ever angry now!"Everybody gets angry sometimes. For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can talk about it. People do lots of different things when they get angry. In this Caldecott-honor book, kids will see what Sophie does when she gets angry. What do you do?"...Bang's double-page illustrations, vibrating with saturated colors, that reveal the drama of the child's emotions."-SLJ, starred review"...an elegant and thought-provoking book for...children learning how to deal with emotions." -NY Times Book Review

Everybody gets angry sometimes. For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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