Recommendations based on "Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter Is the Best Medicine"

How can we change the conversation around gender, become better allies, challenge misconceptions and make the world a better place? Anti-transgender legislation is being introduced across the world in record-breaking numbers. Trans people are under attack in sports, healthcare, entertainment, schools, bathrooms and nearly every walk of life. Schuyler Bailar didn't set out to be an activist, but his very public transition to the Harvard men's swim team put him in the spotlight. His choice to be open about his journey and share his experience has touched people around the world. His plain-spoken education has evolved into tireless advocacy for inclusion and collective liberation. In He/She/They, Schuyler uses storytelling and the art of conversation to give us essential language and context of gender, meeting everyone where they are and paving the way for understanding, acceptance and, most importantly, connection. Schuyler clearly and compassionately addresses fundamental topics, from why being transgender is not a choice and why pronouns are important, to more complex issues including how gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving and why allowing trans youth to play sports is good for every child. More than a book on allyship, He/She/They also speaks to trans people directly, answering the question, 'does it get better?' with a resounding yes, celebrating radical trans joy. With a relatable narrative rooted in facts, science and history, Schuyler helps restore common sense and humanity to a discussion that continues to be divisively co-opted and deceptively politicized. Myth-busting, affirming and compassionate, He/She/They is a crucial, urgent and lifesaving book that will forever change the conversation about gender. *** 'Informative, fabulous to read, and leaves the reader with joy. I love this book!' Jonathan Van Ness, New York Times bestselling author, and TV personality 'Written for both a trans and a general readership, [this] is a solid introduction to why trans rights matter' Publisher's Weekly 'I wish I had this book to guide my own journey years ago, but I am so glad it exists now. We need it!' Dylan Mulvaney, actress, comedian

'This is the freshest, most honest collection of writings about mental health that I've read...searing wit, blinding passion, bleeding emotion and a fantastic, heroic, glorious refusal to lie down and take it' - Stephen Fry'Reading this book made me feel more normal about the things I feel sometimes...It's a great book; however you're feeling, it'll help' - Ed Sheeran'This is the book I needed when I was little. May this be a leap forward in the much needed conversation around mental health' - Jameela JamilEveryone has a mental health. So we asked:What does yours mean to you?THE RESULT IS EXTRAORDINARY.Over 60 people have shared their stories. Powerful, funny, moving, this book is here to tell you:It's OK.With writing from:Adam Kay - Alastair Campbell - Alexis Caught - Ben Platt - Bryony Gordon - Candice Carty-Williams - Charlie Mackesy - Charly Cox - Chidera Eggerue - Claire Stancliffe - Davina McCall - Dawn O'Porter - Elizabeth Day - Elizabeth Uviebinené - Ella Purnell - Emilia Clarke - Emma Thompson - Eve Delaney - Fearne Cotton - Gabby Edlin - Gemma Styles - GIRLI (Milly Toomey) - Grace Beverley - Hannah Witton - Honey Ross - Hussain Manawer - Jack Rooke - James Blake - Jamie Flook - Jamie Windust - Jessie Cave - Jo Irwin - Jonah Freud - Jonny Benjamin - Jordan Stephens - Kai-Isaiah Jamal - Kate Weinberg - Kelechi Okafor - Khalil Aldabbas - KUCHENGA - Lauren Mahon - Lena Dunham - Maggie Matic - Martha Lane Fox - Mathew Kollamkulam - Matt Haig - Megan Crabbe - Michael Kitching - Michelle Elman - Miranda Hart - Mitch Price - Mona Chalabi - Montana Brown - Nadia Craddock - Naomi Campbell - Poorna Bell - Poppy Jamie - Reggie Yates - Ripley Parker - Robert Kazandjian - Rosa Mercuriadis - Saba Asif - Sam Smith - Scarlett Curtis - Scarlett Moffatt - Scottee - Sharon Chalkin Feldstein - Shonagh Marie - Simon Amstell - Steve Ali - Tanya Byron - Travon Free - Yomi Adegoke - Yusuf Al Majarhi

‘Powerful, humane and wise’ JULIA SAMUEL‘Everyone should read it’ NIGELLA LAWSON‘Beautiful … This is a book for everyone. You feel held by it’ PHILIPPA PERRYMost of us have a conversation we’re avoiding.From the bestselling author of With the End in Mind, this is a book about the conversations that matter and how to have them better – more honestly, more confidently and without regret.A child coming out to their parent. A family losing someone to terminal illness. A friend noticing the first signs of someone’s dementia. A careers advisor and a teenager with radically different perspectives.There are moments when we must talk, listen and be there for one another. Why do we so often come away from those times feeling like we could have done more, or should have been braver in the face of discomfort? Why do we skirt the conversations that might matter most?By bringing together stories with a lifetime’s experience working in medicine and the newest psychology, Mannix offers lessons for how we can better speak our mind and help when others need to.Kathryn Mannix’s ‘With the End in Mind’ was a Sunday Times bestseller the weeks ending 6 January 2018, 13 January 2018 and 3 February 2018.

A witty, wise and truthful beauty handbook for real women on what works in real life from Sali Hughes, beloved journalist and broadcaster.“Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick and pull yourself together” Elizabeth TaylorBeauty books. Exquisite coffee-table affairs featuring improbably beautiful models with wholly-unachievable-to-most women looks, product review-heavy volumes which become almost instantly outdated, or tracts of holistic mumbo jumbo, like how to make an unproven face pack from organic molasses and rough-hewn porridge oats.Not anymore.In Pretty Honest, Sali Hughes draws on over 20 years of wisdom, advice and expertise to show real women how to make the most of makeup’s physically and emotionally transformative powers. Covering everything from teenage skin to mature beauty, botox to bridal make-up, sickness to good health, it's a work that is part instruction manual, part love letter to makeup – in a writing style that combines beauty editor, feminist and painfully funny best friend.

An urgent, enlightening and empowering guide to disavowing diet culture and learning to make peace with our bodies, from body confidence and anti-diet advocate, Alex Light.When we look in the mirror, so many of us see a ‘before’ picture: the miserable person in the side-by-side shot waiting for the ‘glow-up’ (read: weight loss) that will bring true happiness. But it’s not our fault that we see our bodies as projects in need of constant work: this is just one of the beliefs that has been ingrained in us by diet culture. We have been taught to view ourselves as a collection of ‘problem’ areas for which the billion-dollar diet industry holds the solutions.Step-by-step, You Are Not A Before Picture provides a framework for changing the way we view ourselves and the world around us. Working with experts in the fields of psychotherapy, fitness and nutrition, Alex empowers readers to interrogate their underlying beliefs, challenge the external and internal forces that are holding us back, and finally find freedom in our bodies, for good.Alex Light was a number 4 Sunday Times Non Fiction bestseller in the w/e June 19th 2022Alex Light's book 'You Are Not a Before Picture' was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 20-06-2022.

Everyone has a mental health. So we asked:What does yours mean to you?THE RESULT IS EXTRAORDINARY.Over 70 people have shared their stories. Powerful, funny, moving, this book is here to tell you:It's OK.With writing from:Adam Kay - Alastair Campbell - Alexis Caught - Ben Platt - Bryony Gordon - Candice Carty-Williams - Charlie Mackesy - Charly Cox - Chidera Eggerue - Claire Stancliffe - Davina McCall - Dawn O'Porter - Elizabeth Day - Elizabeth Uviebinené - Ella Purnell - Emilia Clarke - Emma Thompson - Eve Delaney - Fearne Cotton - Gabby Edlin - Gemma Styles - GIRLI (Milly Toomey) - Grace Beverley - Hannah Witton - Honey Ross - Hussain Manawer - Jack Rooke - James Blake - Jamie Flook - Jamie Windust - Jessie Cave - Jo Irwin - Jonah Freud - Jonny Benjamin - Jordan Stephens - Kai-Isaiah Jamal - Kate Weinberg - Kelechi Okafor - Khalil Aldabbas - KUCHENGA - Lauren Mahon - Lena Dunham - Maggie Matic - Martha Lane Fox - Mathew Kollamkulam - Matt Haig - Megan Crabbe - Michael Kitching - Michelle Elman - Miranda Hart - Mitch Price - Mona Chalabi - Montana Brown - Nadia Craddock - Naomi Campbell - Poorna Bell - Poppy Jamie - Reggie Yates - Ripley Parker - Robert Kazandjian - Rosa Mercuriadis - Saba Asif - Sam Smith - Scarlett Curtis - Scarlett Moffatt - Scottee - Sharon Chalkin Feldstein - Shonagh Marie - Simon Amstell - Steve Ali - Tanya Byron - Travon Free - Yomi Adegoke - Yusuf Al Majarhi

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERIn the tradition of Paul Tough’s How Children Succeed and Wendy Mogel’s The Blessing of a Skinned Knee, this groundbreaking manifesto focuses on the critical school years when parents must learn to allow their children to experience the disappointment and frustration that occur from life’s inevitable problems so that they can grow up to be successful, resilient, and self-reliant adults.Modern parenting is defined by an unprecedented level of overprotectiveness: parents who rush to school at the whim of a phone call to deliver forgotten assignments, who challenge teachers on report card disappointments, mastermind children’s friendships, and interfere on the playing field. As teacher and writer Jessica Lahey explains, even though these parents see themselves as being highly responsive to their children’s well being, they aren’t giving them the chance to experience failure—or the opportunity to learn to solve their own problems.Overparenting has the potential to ruin a child’s confidence and undermine their education, Lahey reminds us. Teachers don’t just teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. They teach responsibility, organization, manners, restraint, and foresight—important life skills children carry with them long after they leave the classroom.Providing a path toward solutions, Lahey lays out a blueprint with targeted advice for handling homework, report cards, social dynamics, and sports. Most importantly, she sets forth a plan to help parents learn to step back and embrace their children’s failures. Hard-hitting yet warm and wise, The Gift of Failure is essential reading for parents, educators, and psychologists nationwide who want to help children succeed.

Kyle Mewburn Grew Up In The Sunburnt, Unsophisticated Brisbane Suburbs Of The 1960s And '70s In A Household With Little Love And No Books, With A Lifelong Feeling Of Being Somehow Wrong – Like ‘strawberry Jam In A Spinach Can'. In This Book, Kyle Describes This Early Life And Her Journey To Becoming Her Own Person – A Celebrated Children’s Book Author, A Husband And, Finally, A Woman. She Shares The Dreams, The Prejudice And The Agony Of Growing Up Trans And Coming Out, The Lengthy Physical Ordeal Of Facial Feminisation Surgery, And Her Experiences As A Woman – Good, Bad And Creepy. This Is A Heartbreaking, Often Hilarious, Candid True Story About What It Means To Hide From Yourself, Your Partner And The World, And Then To Attain The Freedom And Acceptance Of Being Yourself. A Story With The Bittersweet Beauty You’d Expect From The Writer Of Old Huhu That Is Relevant For Anyone Wanting To Know And Understand The Trans Experience – Or Anyone Wanting To Discover Who They Are And What They Are Meant To Be.

Now in paperback! A super-simple introduction to the human body from the author and illustrator of Me on the Map. What is under your skin? Why do you have bones? What do your muscles do? Where does the food that you eat go? Me and My Amazing Body can show you! From your head to your toes and everything in between, this playful introduction to anatomy explains all the important parts of your body. Easy to read and easy to understand, Me and My Amazing Body helps children appreciate everything their amazing bodies can do.

2015 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction New York Times Bestseller A breakout teen author explores the true meaning of popularity and how to survive middle school in this hysterically funny, touchingly honest contemporary memoir. "I was inspired by [Maya's] journey and made a point of saving a copy of 'Popular' for my sister, who starts middle school this fall. Maybe if I had read it when I was her age, it could have saved me from a world of hurt, or at least put that world in perspective." --Maude Apatow, New York Times Book Review Can curlers, girdles, Vaseline, and a strand of pearls help a shy girl become popular? Maya Van Wagenen is about to find out. Stuck near the bottom of the social ladder at "pretty much the lowest level of people at school who aren't paid to be here," Maya has never been popular. But before starting eighth grade, she decides to begin a unique social experiment: spend the school year following a 1950s popularity guide, written by former teen model Betty Cornell. The real-life results are hilarious, painful, and filled with unexpected surprises. Told with humor and grace, Maya's journey offers readers of all ages a thoroughly contemporary example of kindness and self-confidence, along with a better understanding of what it means to be popular.