It's a New Year, So Shall We Try for Happy This Time?

I have 359 books on my Happiness Shelf at Goodreads, and 298 of them I've rated either four or five stars.  

Reading about happiness, you might say, makes me happy.

I've read a lot of books about happiness. Perhaps I'm a bit of a happiness book expert. So I thought I'd share a few with you from my Happiness Shelf.

Some books are obviously on the shelf as a case of What Not to Do. Anna Karenina, for example. If you are interested in becoming happier quickly, I'm not sure it would be in your best interest to read an 864-page book on how to be miserable. So, let's skip Anna.

Some books are just a delight to read. Potato Pants by Laurie Keller is one of them. Though I'm not sure Potato Pants would be delightful for everyone...Maybe strike Potato Pants from your list for right now, but don't forget about silly picture books for a snappy burst of joy.

Let's move on...

If you are wanting some in-depth books about happiness, let me suggest Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is one of the founders of the positive psychology movement, and he's very good at explaining the eight characteristics of the peak experience of flow. Or you might like the very-thorough, well-researched The How of Happiness by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky.  

Perhaps you are just getting started on your happiness journey, and a big tome is too much right now. I'd suggest you start with The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun or the readable 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help that Actually Works by Dan Harris.

I keep some of these books on my shelves at home for some quick mood-boosting: Better Than Chocolate: 50 Proven Ways to Feel Happier; Five Good Minutes: 100 Morning Practices to Help You Stay Calm and Focused All Day Long; and the most condensed book of all, Be Happy: A Little Book to Help You Live a Happy Life.

Okay. I think that's about it, though I personally think the world would be a much happier place if everyone would read (and put into action) I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening). Just a thought...Maybe something to keep in mind after we all become a bit happier first.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

Eleven Authors I Discovered for the First Time in 2022

Judy I. Lin (A Magic Steeped in Poison)

Javier Zamora (Solito)

Ed Yong (I Contain Multitudes)

Julie Falatko (Rick the Rock of Room 214)

Erika L. Sanchez (I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter)

Katherine Heiny (Early Morning Riser)

Anna Rose Johnson (The Star That Always Stays)

Alda P. Dobbs (Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna)

Nita Prose (The Maid)

Weike Wang (Joan is Okay)

Annette LeBlanc Cate (A Dragon Used to Live Here)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

Most Intriguing New Books of 2023

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

My Favorite Reads of 2022

I have a category for everyone, I think.

But when you regularly read over 400 books a year, you find you must divide up your favorites into categories...

BEST NONFICTION READS OF THE YEAR    

Absurd Words: A Kids' Fun and Hilarious Vocabulary Builder for Future Word Nerds by Tara Lazar (Words)

Adrift: America in 100 Charts by Scott Galloway (Social Issues)

Another Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill (Music)

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Nature)

How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith (Social Issues)

How to Live: What the Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning and Community by Judith Valente (Happiness)

I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong (Science)

Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana Alexievich (History)

Solito by Javier Zamora (Memoir)

What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (Science)

BEST NEW(ISH) FICTION READS OF THE YEAR

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Joan is Okay by Week Wang

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell

Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Grams

Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny

I Must Betray You by Ruth Sepetys

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez

The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

BEST CLASSIC READS OF THE YEAR

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

The Hills is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio

The Diary of Samuel Pepys by Samuel Pepys

BEST FOODIE READS OF THE YEAR

    

Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer's Guide by Cecily Wong

Life is What You Bake It by Vallery Lomas

One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake

BEST NATURE READS OF THE YEAR

The Wild Remedy: How Nature Mends Us---A Diary by Emma Mitchell

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

BEST HAPPINESS READS OF THE YEAR

How to Live: What the Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning and Community by Judith Valente

The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You're Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted, Betrayed, or Desperate by Harriet Lerner

The Joy Plan: How I Took 30 Days to Stop Worrying, Quit Complaining, and Find Ridiculous Happiness by Kaia Roman

Play Your Way Sane: 100 Improv-Inspired Exercises to Help Calm Down, Stop Spiraling, and Embrace Uncertainty by Clay Drinks

BEST BOOKS-ABOUT-BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Around the World in 80 Books by David Demrosch 

Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books by Cathy Rentzenbrink

Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times by Azar Nafisi

Bibliophile: Diverse Spines by James Harper

BEST TRAVEL READS OF THE YEAR

Dear Paris: The Paris Letters Collection by Janice MacLeod 

Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck

My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

One More Croissant for the Road by Felicity Cloake

BEST FANTASY/SCIFI READS OF THE YEAR

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

MY FAVORITE KID/YA BOOKS OF THE YEAR

(Omitting All Cybils Fiction Picture Book/Board Book Nominees)

Rick the Rock of Room 214 by Julie Falatko 

Things to Look Forward To: 52 Large and Small Joys for Today and Every Day by Sophie Blackwell

The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza by Mac Barnett

And We Rise by Erica Martin

The Star That Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson

A Dragon Used to Live Here by Annette LeBlanc Cate

The Robber Hotzenplotz by Otfried Pruebler

Hardcourt: Stories from 75 Years of the National Basketball Association by Fred Bowen

Underground to Canada by Barbara Smucker

Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre by Carole Boston Weatherford

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

Most Recent Additions to My Book Collection

New Kindle books for my birthday...

and Santa was very, very good to me...

Great Short Books

Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist

The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction

Books that Saved My Life (birthday)

Revenge of the Librarians

Plus...Bookopoly and look at those book shoes!

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.    

Books I Hope Santa Brings This Year

Dear Santa,

I have been very good this year.

I'd really like for you to bring me a book for Christmas this year.

Here are some books I am eager to read.

Take care,

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.