Book Summaries 2024

John Medina is a molecular biologist who focuses on psychiatric disorders. Medina wrote this book in order to help the general public understand in a simple, accessible way how brains work and how the functions of the brain affect how we interact with the world. In this guide, we discuss the 12 rules he’s identified that summarize the brain’s core functions, abilities, and limitations. We also offer ways to apply Medina’s principles in your daily life and discuss scientific and cultural ideas related to his brain rules.

When Breath Becomes Air is the beautiful and heart-wrenching memoir of Dr. Paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgical resident diagnosed with lung cancer in the last year of his training. When the life Paul and his wife Lucy imagined for their futures ceases in the face of his diagnosis, he works to understand what his new life will look like and how long it will be. Through various treatments, his struggle to return to work, and the birth of his first and only child, Paul details his personal journey of discovering the meaning of life, death, and the thin line separating them. He explores what it means to save a life—not only his patients’, but his own, as well.

We’ve grouped those lessons into eight broader tactics that will help you cope with adversity, build self-discipline, spread kindness, and more. You’ll come away with actionables you can implement daily to make your life better and background on the philosophies, ideologies, and science on which Sharma draws.

Through this book, you’ll have the chance to imagine your own life’s purpose and the lives you’ve they have touched along the way. The author is Mitch Alborn, best-selling author of Tuesdays with Morrie and The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto.

In this guide, we’ll discuss four key components of a good life philosophy—spiritual, emotional, material, and moral welfare. Then, we’ll explore why it’s important to carefully consider your life philosophy. Finally, we’ll explain four methods for aligning your actions with your life philosophy. In our commentary, we’ll discuss additional life philosophies, research about what it means to live well, and practical tips for living your best life from other experts.

In this guide, we’ll outline Kishimi and Koga’s radical view of life and explain how you can use it to tap into the freedom and joy inherent in human existence. Along the way, we’ll provide additional information about Adlerian psychology and compare Kishimi and Koga’s advice to that in other popular self-help books.

What is the meaning of life? This question has both plagued and motivated humans for centuries, and it’s probably crossed your mind once or twice. But how do we answer this question, and how can we ensure our lives have meaning? Man’s Search for Meaning recounts Viktor Frankl’s experiences in the concentration camps of WWII and the school of therapy he invented to help us confront this very question.

What is the meaning of life? This question has both plagued and motivated humans for centuries, and it’s probably crossed your mind once or twice. But how do we answer this question, and how can we ensure our lives have meaning? Man’s Search for Meaning recounts Viktor Frankl’s experiences in the concentration camps of WWII and the school of therapy he invented to help us confront this very question.

This guide delves into what it means to have your life in order and provides a strategic roadmap to get there. By exploring the philosophies that have inspired Knight alongside insights from other notable self-help experts, this guide offers practical, implementable strategies to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

In this guide, we’ll explain what intermittent fasting is and how our modern eating habits differ from our bodies’ naturally evolved eating patterns. We’ll also discuss the many benefits of fasting and examine Asprey’s Bulletproof fasting method. Throughout the guide, we’ll supplement Asprey’s insights with those of other health and nutrition experts and provide additional tips to help you in your fasting journey.