Recently we keep being asked for books that will make you feel empowered, ready to take on the world and like the best you can be so we thought to help anyone else that may be seeking out a similar book recco we'd put some of our favourites together in one blog post, although there are more reviews to be found on our Instagram account @bookreccos.
Happy Not Perfect by Poppy Jamie
Poppy Jamie is one of the world’s leading entrepreneurs and speakers in the mental wellbeing and mindfulness space. Along with co-founding accessories brand Pop & Suki, with her best friend model/actor Suki Waterhouse (the success of which led to Forbes naming her one of their 30 under 30), she has also founded the award winning Happy Not Perfect mindset app.
Most recently, she's written for Kourtney Kardashian's wellness site Poosh but she has also written her own incredible book Happy Not Perfect: Upgrade Your Mind, Challenge Your Thoughts and Free Yourself From Anxiety, which is full of workable tools for emotional and mental health that can be so easily applied to every day life.
We were delighted to interview Poppy on our podcast which you can listen to below on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts:
Working Hard, Hardly Working by Grace Beverley
Influencer turned CEO, founder of fitness brands TALA and Shreddy, Grace Beverley knows a thing or two about multi-tasking and productivity and she's kindly gathered all her tips and tricks into her book Working Hard, Hardly Working: How to achieve more, stress less and feel fulfilled.
It's jam-packed with realistic scenarios and the hacks were very easy to apply to our working lives. Whether you're a bit of a procrastinator or are running out of hours in the day, we think they'll be something for you to get out of this book to apply to your own career.
Poorna Bell is an award-winning journalist, author and digital editorial expert, she specialises in women’s issues, diversity, fitness and mental health, and you can find her work in the likes of The Times, Grazia, The Guardian as well as in her three non-fiction books.
Poorna is also a competitive powerlifter, after discovering this new passion in her forties, which led to her most recent piece of non-fiction, Stronger. Part manifesto, part memoir, Stronger is inspired by her journey to get physically strong after her husband passed away and is full of interviews exploring size, age, race, and ability.
We had the absolute pleasure of interviewing Poorna about her book on our podcast, which you can listen to below on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts:
Bigger Than Us by Fearne Cotton
Fearne Cotton has written many books now, including Happy, Calm and Quiet but in her latest, Bigger Than Us, she seeks insight and advice of wise minds to explore what they can teach us to achieve happiness, connection and hope.
With their help, she peels back layers of anxiety and self-limiting beliefs to find contentment and deeper meaning, by exploring positive ideas and simple exercises that are available to every single one of us.
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
Author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls (both firm faves of ours) Elizabeth Gilbert use her book Big Magic to explore the notion of creativity, big thinking and inspiration. It's a little book FULL of thought provoking anecdotes that left us buzzing with thoughts and feelings.
We have an entire podcast episode dedicated to this book, and in it we also recco some other self help books that we've loved, you can listen below on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts:
If you’re in need of a book that’s going to make you feel 6 inches taller and give you the confidence to make changes in your life, then look no further.
This book’s been tried and tested. In a society that’s conditioned us to feel “not enough”, this book gives us the perspective to step back and examine our lives and imagine what it would be like if we had the courage to transform the way we live, love, parent and lead.
In our opinion, this book is even better on audio; so you can listen to Brené’s voice in your ears giving you a pep talk.
We Need To Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba
Otegha Uwagba is a bestselling author and culture journalist who has written three books: Little Black Book: A Toolkit for Working Women, short essay Whites: On Race And Other Falsehoods and the Sunday Times bestseller We Need To Talk About Money, a part memoir, part cultural commentary published in 2021 and selected as an Observer Book of the Year.
It was fantastic, so yep you guessed it we took it to the podcast to discuss in more depth. In 2021 the Sunday Times highlighted Otegha as one of seven young writers “changing the literary world,” and its easy to see why, give our podcast episode a listen below on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts:
In this blog post, you'll see the books we have mentioned are linked to Bookshop.org, a hub where you can buy books online but from independent bookshops. Please support small businesses.