How to change your life: From beating burnout and facing fears to helping your child's mental health, experts pick the books everyone needs

The Uncomfortable Truth by Anna Mathur In this punchy book packed with bracing common sense, psychotherapist Anna Mathur asks us to look our worst fears in the face. Burnout, perfectionism, addiction, anxiety, people-pleasing, grief, and so, so much shame.’ Among the ten fears she asks us to lean into are: ‘Some people don’t like me’, ‘I am going to fail’, ‘I will hurt people I love’, ‘life isn’t fair’, ‘bad things will happen’, ‘I will lose people I love’, and ‘I am going to die’. ‘In order to live a full and thriving life, you must live a risky one.’ Stop Lying To Yourself by Simon Gilham Successful CEO and now highly successful relationship guru Simon Gilham speaks to millions of his followers daily on social media, in short, sharp bursts of harsh wisdom. These include: have candlelit, screen-free evenings; make a ‘social map’ so you don’t squander time on acquaintances rather than connecting with the few friends who really matter; stop spending money the whole time; go for country walks; use your hands to do physical tasks; do a bit of Stone Age squatting every day; bring back regular rituals; and, ‘build your own alloparenting network’ – ‘alloparenting’ meaning ‘involving others’, as our Stone Age ancestors did. ‘Our bodies are built to be born, and they are built to die.’ This book is a celebration of the hospice movement, which helps dying people in their dying moments.