15 Life-Changing Books to Invigorate Your New Year

When Jennifer Scott, a California girl, went to study abroad in Paris, she found a mentor in her host mother, Madame Chic. Madame Chic taught her the lessons of living a beautiful life, and lucky for us, Jennifer has published those lessons. Her experience reminded me of my own as a student in Paris, which makes me love this book even more.

You can read my full review of LESSONS FROM MADAME CHIC here.

Colleen Saidman Yee, the “First Lady of Yoga,” shares how she found herself through the healing power of yoga. Approachable, sympathetic, funny, and candid, YOGA FOR LIFE offers techniques to bring awareness to every part of your physical and spiritual being, allowing you to embody the peace of the present moment.

Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, has changed the way Americans think about food. Now his mother and three sisters invite you into their warm and inspiring kitchens with The Pollan Family Table, a cookbook that will help you create delicious, nourishing meals and cultivate traditions that bring families back to the table.

Shonda Rhimes delivered some tough love in her Dartmouth commencement address saying, “dreamers often end up living in the basements of relatives.” Rhimes’s book YEAR OF YES offers inspiration for the dreamers who need to take action. Her straight-forward advice for living out your dreams boldly? Say “yes.”

THE ART OF STILLNESS considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: the more ways we have to connect, the more we desperately need to unplug.

A short, illustrated book of simple rules everyone should follow in order to live a long, healthy life, from the bestselling author of The End of Illness.

What makes this particular diet book so appealing is that the meal plan contains quick and easy to prepare meals using ingredients that you can find anywhere. No hard-to-find brands, no expensive ingredients—just simple grocery store recommendations, tips for eating out at restaurants, and an at-a-glance visual guide to the snacks and desserts that you can eat and still lose weight.

Join the coloring craze with these intricate and beautifully detailed line drawings of birds. Relieve stress, practice mindfulness, and discover your creative side as you unplug and slow down by filling these exquisite pages with color.

Part memoir and part education (or lack thereof), THE KNOW-IT-ALL chronicles NPR contributor A. J. Jacobs’s hilarious, enlightening, and seemingly impossible quest to read the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA from A to Z.

You can find the authentic, contented life you crave by taking happiness into your own two hands. The perfect self-help book for our do-it-yourself culture, THE CREATIVITY CURE explores how creative action leads to long-term happiness and well-being.

Put your curiosity to work.

This brilliant, entertaining, fascinating, and inspiring homage to the power of inquisitiveness is from renowned film and TV producer Brian Grazer. Whether you’re looking to improve your management style at work or become a better romantic partner, these lessons on the power of curiosity can change your life.

This classic bestselling resource for every American home helps you find creative solutions to modern domestic dilemmas like keeping a piano in tune, making a good fire, and folding a fitted sheet. HOME COMFORTS teaches the art of keeping and enhancing the experience of life at home.

Jump-start your weight loss, increase your energy level, clear your mind, and improve your overall health. This book provides a shopping list, recipes, and detailed instructions for the 10-day green smoothie cleanse and offers advice on how to maintain good health afterward.

This book is at once a beautifully written celebration of the memoir form, an innovative course full of practical teachings, and a deeply affecting meditation on consciousness, love, life, and death.

Accessible, direct, honest, and thought-provoking, this style guide for positive dressing shows us how improving our external appearance can have life-changing effects on how we’re perceived by others—and more importantly, on how we perceive ourselves.