By Beverly Daniel Tatum

Using real-life examples and a conversational tone, this sensitive and extensively researched book presents strong evidence that straight talking about our racial identities is crucial if we are serious about meaningful change.

By Gary Chapman
Recommended By Ralph Guiteau, Readers' Services Librarian, Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

Outlines five expressions of love—quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch—and explains how to identify and communicate effectively in a spouse's "love language."

By Sara Benincasa

The comedian and radio host recollects her experiences with agoraphobia and how she, with the help of her friends and family who drew her back from the edge, broke free from fear to live in the life she was meant to live.

By Nicole Chung
Recommended By Lisa H., Readers' Services Librarian

A Korean adoptee who grew up with a white family in Oregon discusses her journey to find her identity as an Asian American woman and a writer after becoming curious about her true origins.

By Benjamin Nugent

An engaging study of the nerd in popular culture and throughout history discussed in such contexts as the rise of online gaming, the science fiction club, ethnicity, Asperger’s syndrome, autism, and high school and college debating.

By Helen E. Fisher

This revised edition includes the latest research on anthropology and internet-age relationships and examines the brain's role in love and courtship while making recommendations for returning to traditional patterns of romance.

By Adrian Raine

A criminologist who specializes in the neurological and biosocial bases of antisocial and violent behavior explains how impairments to areas of the brain that control fear, decision-making, and empathy can increase the likelihood of criminal activity.

Is becoming the TV show: The Anatomy of Violence.

By Claudia Kalb

A meticulously researched glimpse into the likely mental illnesses of high-profile historical figures reveals that Albert Einstein had autism, Frank Lloyd Wright was a narcissist, Marilyn Monroe had borderline personality disorder and Charles Darwin suffered from anxiety.

By Laurel Braitman

Examines parallels between the ways humans and animals express feelings and experience mental decline, tracing studies of emotionally disturbed animals and their caregivers to consider how their recoveries can inform the human medical community.

By Temple Grandin

Drawing on the latest research and her own work, Grandin identifies the core emotional needs of animals and explains how to fulfill them.

By Paddy S. Welles

A professional psychologist offers a personal guide to forming loving, lasting relationships with the people closest to us, with a practical program of professional therapy and reflection exercises that touches on such subjects as love and sex, the requirements for building lasting love, how to end unhealthy involvements, and more.

By Gretchen Craft Rubin

Presents the information about habit formation, along with strategies for breaking habits that are counterproductive and for forming good habits that enhance the quality of life and help in the attainment of life goals.

By Rebecca Walker

Describes the personal journey of a woman born to a black mother and Jewish father, including her struggle with drugs and complicated friendships, and culminating in her endeavor to find her own identity.

By Joan Didion

Shares the author's frank observations about her daughter as well as her own thoughts and fears about having children and growing old, in a personal account that discusses her daughter's wedding and her feelings of failure as a parent.

By Kate Christensen
Recommended By Audrey Honigman, Library Clerk

“Builds on the author’s popular food-centric blog to recount her unconventional upbringing and her unusually happy and occasionally sorrowful life of literary and culinary sensuality (From the Publisher).”

By Daniel Tammet

Tuesday, April 24. 1 PM & 7:30 PM.

In honor of National Autism Awareness Month

"Traces the inspiring story of an autistic savant with genius-level mathematical talents, describing how he was eschewed by his classmates in spite of his near-photographic memory and super-human capacity for math and language, in a firsthand account that offers insight into how he experiences the world (From the Publisher)."

By Barbara Ehrenreich
Recommended By Pam Martin, Assistant Library Director

“Americans are a "positive" people - cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: This is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive is the key to getting success and prosperity. Or so we are told… (From the Publisher).”

By Martin Lindstrom

Draws on a three-year brain-scan study of people from around the world to shed new light on what stimulates interest in a product and compels us to buy it, refuting common assumptions and myths about the marketing of a product.

By Edith Eva Eger

A dual memoir and guide to healing by a psychologist and Holocaust survivor counsels patients on how to escape the prisons of their own minds, describing her harrowing experiences in Auschwitz and how it gave her particular insights into the challenges of PTSD.

By Melody Beattie

The companion volume to Melody Beattie's Codependent No More provides exercises to help readers learn how to handle their emotions and stop getting caught up in other people's problems.

By David Cullen
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

“Discusses the school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999, reflecting on the killers’ histories and the portrayal of the event by the media (From the Publisher).”

By M.E. Thomas

A diagnosed non-criminal sociopath explains how her charisma and penchant for convincing lies enables her to influence and seduce others, offering insight into her system of ethics while offering advice on how to manage a relationship with a sociopath.

By Eric Hollander

Citing social anxiety disorder as the third most common psychiatric illness in the United States, a guide for sufferers discussed the nature of the disorder, the latest research into its psychological effects and links to depression, and the range of available treatments.

By Carolyn Roy-Bornstein

A pediatrician recounts the experience of her son who, with his girlfriend, was hit by a drunk driver while walking home in the dark, and the memory loss, depression, and brain changes from which he has subsequently suffered.

By Bernadette Stankard

Filled with practical suggestions, opportunities for reflection, and up-to-date resources for anyone whose life is affected by the depression of another.

By Brené Brown

Explores how to cultivate daring leaders by recognizing and developing the potential in people, sharing power, aligning authority with accountability, and not avoiding difficult conversations or situations.

By Malcolm Gladwell

Uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty and the powerful and the dispossessed.

By Jennifer Miller

A woman deceived by her own therapist chronicles how she sought help for depression only to be manipulated by the man she came to trust with her secrets.

By Ann Dowsett Johnston

A journalist combines in-depth research with her own personal story of recovery to investigate the psychological, social, and industry factors that have caused rising rates of alcohol abuse and binge-drinking among women and girls.

By Anne Richardson Roiphe

Traces the author’s loss of her beloved husband, her experiences with grief and widowhood, and her efforts to make new friends when her daughters placed a singles ad for her in a literary journal.

By Andrew Solomon

Explores the consequences of extreme personal differences between parents and children, describing his own experiences as a gay child of straight parents while evaluating the circumstances of people affected by physical, developmental, or cultural factors that divide families. 

By Betty Friedan

Views the distorted image of women that prevailed from the end of the Second World War through the early sixties and reflects upon changes.

By Gretchen Rubin

Identifies four key personality types that shape every aspect of behavior, explaining how to gain better understanding about each personality's strengths and vulnerabilities for better decision-making, reduced stress, and more effective communication.

By Jenny Lawson

The popular blogger presents a humorous and candid memoir about her lifelong battle with severe depression and anxiety, discussing how embracing both the flawed and the beautiful parts of life have enabled her to find joy in outrageous ways.

By Alexandra Robbins

Explores how group identity theories play out among high-school cliques and the students they exclude, offering insight into the ostracism of categorized students while analyzing the long-term positive and negative effects of peer marginalization.

By John Brooks

In an important wake-up call for parents, teens and mental health professionals, the author searches for the truth about his adoptive daughter’s suicide, spending months trying to understand what made the 17-year-old take her life and sharing what he learned to help others.

By Susanna Kaysen

In 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital. Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers.

By Jon Katz

Presents a meditation on coping with the loss of an animal who has enriched one's life, sharing observations on the ways in which people grieve for their pets, related philosophical quesions, and the process of letting go.

By Angel Duckworth

Argues that focused persistence is more important than talent in enabling high achievement, drawing on the author's pioneering research and experience to counsel caregivers, educators, athletes, students, and businesspeople on how to promote optimal performance through perseverance.

By Darin Strauss

Half a life after he killed a girl riding her bike with his car as a teenager, the author delves into the meaning and consequences of that fateful day, and all the culpability, anguish, and regret that continue to penetrate his every thought.

By Gretchen Rubin
Recommended By Jean Buchholtz, Library Clerk

Recounts the author's efforts to render her home a place of greater simplicity, comfort, and love, discussing how she experimented with a range of concrete resolutions and came to redefine her views about family, time, and material comforts.

By Tal Ben-Shahar

Provides a complete crash course on what happiness is and how to strive for it, based on the principles of positive psychology.

By Louis E. LaGrand

Grief counseling expert Dr. Louis LaGrand describes 101 tips and prescriptions to help mourners through their tragic loss.

By Beth Lisick

A lighthearted analysis of the multibillion-dollar self-help industry traces the author’s year-long experimentation with the empowerment and self-improvement philosophies of such names as John Gray, Richard Simmons, and Suze Orman.

By Kat Kinsman

An analysis of the role of anxiety in the life of the award-winning editor-in-chief of the Tasting Table Website expands on her high-profile CNN article to explore her adolescent diagnosis with depression and her daily struggles with making choices and pursuing treatment.

By Jill Bialosky

The author presents an account of her sister's suicide, and the lifelong impact that the suicide has had on her own life and the lives of the other members of her family.

By Laura Kipnis

Examines contemporary scandals and the downfalls of high-profile figures, analyzing four cases to explore why people act out their personal dramas in open venues and why the public enjoys watching scandalous behavior.

By Sandy Peckinpah

A practical, inspirational guide to coping with the many faces of bereavement; learning how to talk about your loss, the aftermath of sorrow, handling fear and anger, helping your living children adjust, strengthening your marriage, experiencing miracles, and that promise that you will regain a quality of life where you'll feel joy once again.

By Truman Capote

“On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.  As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy (From the Publisher).”

By Jon Katz
Recommended By Amy B., Children's Librarian

The author describes how Izzy, a dog with an uncanny sensitivity toward ill and troubled humans, led him to take on the difficult but rewarding job of hospice volunteer, while his acquisition of Lenore, a Labrador puppy, helped him overcome depression.