Does life really have to be so hard? Not according to Greg McKeown it doesn’t. In “Effortless,” he says the path of least resistance is the one we should be on.

Episode Recommendation:

EFFORTLESS: Embrace the Easy Option

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Today, at #3 in our countdown, “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” by Katy Milkman. It’s a deeply researched primer on how to defeat temptation, procrastination, and all the other little demons that stand between you and your best possible self.

Episode Recommendation:

HOW TO CHANGE: Science-Backed Tips for Becoming Your Best Self (Katy Milkman & Daniel Pink)

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Today, at #4 in our countdown of last year’s most popular book bites, “The Child in You” by Stefanie Stahl.

Is your inner child your truest self? Clinical psychologist Stefanie Stahl thinks so, as do the one-and-a-half million readers who have snapped up her book. But sometimes childhood traumas, big and small, can keep us from becoming happy, fulfilled adults. In this book, Stefanie uses examples and exercises to guide readers through a process of working through past injuries to become more alive — and childlike — in the present.

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Adam Grant needs no introduction, but we’ll give him one anyway. He’s an organizational psychologist at Wharton. He hosts the chart-topping “WorkLife” podcast. And to top it all off, he is one of our curators here at the Next Big Idea Club. In his latest book, Think Again , Adam makes a nuanced case for the power of rethinking things. If you can learn how to check your ego, question your opinions, admit to being wrong, and demilitarize your dinner-table debates, then you’ll be on the way to a healthy, joyous, more enlightened life.

Check out Adam’s full interview with Rufus:

THINK AGAIN: Adam Grant on the Power of Changing Your Mind

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Keeping up with the cognitive demands of modern life has pushed our brains to their limits. But if the world around us won’t change, then we have to. And to do that, according to science writer Annie Murphy Paul, we need to stop being so brain-bound.

Episode Recommendation:

EXTENDED MIND: Want to Get Smarter? Try Thinking Outside of Your Brain

Bonus: Adam Grant and Annie Murphy Paul

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Today, at #7 in our countdown of last year’s best Book Bites, “Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It” by Ethan Kross.

The voice in your head can speak at a rate of 4,000 words per minute. When it gets going like that, not everything it says is particularly helpful. Luckily, there are tools you can use to change the conversation.

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CHATTER: Learning to Love the Voice in Your Head

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We tell ourselves lies in order to live. We believe our marriages will last, even though we know half of them end in divorce. We trick ourselves into thinking our children are extraordinary, because if we saw them for who they really are — average, disobedient, smelly — the body blows of parenting would be more than we could bear. But here’s the thing: these wide-eyed delusions aren’t bad for us. In Useful Delusions, Shankar Vedantam says that the occasional self-deception can actually contribute to your overall well-being. Turns out lying to yourself is part of being a well-adjusted human.

Episode Recommendation:

DELUSIONS: How Self-Deception Can Help You Flourish (Shankar Vedantam & Daniel Pink)

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In her new book, “Smarter Tomorrow,” neuroscientist Elizabeth Ricker says just 15 minutes of neurohacking a day can sharpen your mental skills, supercharge your creativity, and improve your life. You’re probably thinking, “Sounds great. But what’s neurohacking?” Listen and you’ll find out!

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What if ownership isn’t a fact but a story? That’s the tantalizing premise of “Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives.” Its authors, Michael Heller and James Salzman, who teach law at Columbia and UCLA, respectively, use their combined wisdom on the subject of property to show that the way we handle our personal tugs of war over parking spaces, fence lines, and reclining airline seats says a lot about how we can handle big social problems like wealth inequality and climate change.

Episode Recommendation:

MINE: How the Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives

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In “A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload” (#11 in our countdown of last year’s most popular Book Bites), Cal Newport doesn’t just dare to imagine a future where new forms of streamlined digital communication replace endless email threads and haphazard messaging. He says that future is inevitable. The question is: Will you be ready for it?

Episode Recommendation:

EMAIL: Would the World Be Better Without It?

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