Reading Guides

Independently researched reading guides — the best books in psychology, psychotherapy and psychological fiction, ranked and reviewed by our editorial team.

Popular Psychology

Accessible psychology books to understand yourself and other people.

• Best Psychology Books to Understand Yourself
• The 6 Best Books on Anxiety, Ranked by What Actually Helps
• The Best Books on Addiction: Understanding It, Living With It, Leaving It
• The Best Books on ADHD: For Newly Diagnosed Adults and Everyone Catching Up
• The Best Books on Anger: For Anger That Helps Instead of Harms
• The Best Books on Attachment Theory: From Bowlby to Attached
• The Best Books on Boundaries: How to Say No Without Burning It All Down
• The Best Books on Breakups: How to Grieve It and Move On
• The Best Books on Burnout: Recovery, Rest, and the Deeper Diagnosis
• The Best Books on Codependency: Naming the Pattern, Finding the Exit
• The Best Books on Depression: 10 Reads That Actually Help
• The Best Books on Forgiveness: How Letting Go Actually Works
• The Best Books on Habits: 8 Picks Beyond Atomic Habits
• The Best Books on Happiness: What the Science Actually Supports
• The Best Books on Introversion: For the Quiet Temperament in a Loud World
• The Best Books on Loneliness: What Actually Helps When You Feel Alone
• The Best Books on Midlife Crisis: The Second Half, Faced on Purpose
• The Best Books on Narcissism: Understanding It, Surviving It, Healing From It
• The Best Books on OCD: For the Doubt That Demands Certainty
• The Best Books on Overthinking: How to Quiet the Loop
• The Best Books on People-Pleasing: How to Stop Abandoning Yourself
• The Best Books on Perfectionism: How to Stop Chasing Flawless
• The Best Books on Procrastination: What the Science Says About Finally Starting
• The Best Books on Resilience: What Actually Helps You Come Back
• The Best Books on Self-Compassion: Neff, Germer, Brach and Beyond
• The Best Books on Self-Esteem: What Actually Builds It (and What Doesn’t)
• The Best Books on Shame: The Emotion That Hides and Runs Everything
• The Best Books on Sleep: The Science and the Fixes That Work
• The Best Books on Social Anxiety: For Shyness That Runs Your Life
• The Best Books on Stress: What It Does to You and What Actually Helps
• The Best Books on Trauma: What Happened to You, and What Helps
• The Best Brené Brown Books: Where to Start and What Each One Teaches
• The Best Couples Therapy Books: 9 Picks That Actually Work
• The Best Emotional Intelligence Books: From Goleman to the New Science
• The Best Mindfulness Books: 10 Picks from Clinical to Contemplative

Thinker Hubs

Reading guides to the great minds of psychology and their key works.

• Alain de Botton Books Guide: Where to Start with Philosophy for Daily Life
• Alan Watts Books: Where to Start With the Great Interpreter
• Carl Jung Books for Beginners: Where to Start
• Carl Rogers Books: Where to Start (A Reading Guide)
• Erich Fromm Books Guide: Where to Start with the Art of Loving Author
• Ernest Becker’s Books: The Denial of Death and Everything After
• Freud Books: Where to Start (A Reader’s Guide)
• Great Minds of Psychology
• Heidegger Books for Beginners: Where to Start with the Hardest Great Philosopher
• Martin Buber Books: Where to Start with the Philosopher of Meeting
• Oliver Sacks Books in Order: Where to Start with the Great Case Histories
• Rilke’s Books: Where to Start With the Poet of the Inner Life
• Rollo May Books: A Reading Guide to the American Existentialist
• Schopenhauer Books: A Beginner’s Guide to the Great Pessimist
• Simone de Beauvoir Books Guide: Where to Start with the Existentialist
• Thich Nhat Hanh’s Books: Where to Start and What to Read Next

Therapy Training Books

Must-read training books for therapists, counselors and psychology students.

• Best Books for Therapists
• Best CBT Books (2026): 10 Picks for Self-Help & Therapists
• The 6 Best Books for New Therapists
• The Best ACT Books: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy from Both Sides
• The Best Books About Being a Therapist: What the Job Actually Costs and Gives
• The Best Books for Psychology Students (That No Syllabus Assigns)
• The Best CBT Workbooks: Real Skills Practice You Can Do at Home
• The Best DBT Books: Skills Manuals, Workbooks, and Linehan’s Story
• The Best EMDR Books: For Clients, Skeptics, and Clinicians
• The Best Gestalt Therapy Books: Contact, Awareness, and the Here and Now
• The Best IFS Books: Internal Family Systems for Therapists and Seekers
• The Best Psychodynamic Therapy Books: From Freud’s Heirs to the Modern Couch
• The Best Somatic Therapy Books: The Body-Based Trauma Shelf, Mapped
• What Is CBT? Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Explained (and the 4 Books to Read)

Psychological Fiction

Novels about therapy, psychiatrists and the search for meaning.

• 6 Books Like When Nietzsche Wept
• Best Novels About Therapy
• Dostoevsky Books in Order: A Reading Path Through the Great Novels
• Franz Kafka Books in Order: Where to Start with the Trial of Being Alive
• Haruki Murakami Books in Order: The Novelist of Wells, Cats, and Missing Women
• Hermann Hesse Books in Order: From Siddhartha to The Glass Bead Game
• Kazuo Ishiguro Books in Order: The Novelist of Self-Deception and What We Almost Knew
• Milan Kundera Books in Order: Where to Start with the Novelist of Lightness
• Sylvia Plath’s Books: Where to Start with the Poet of the Examined Wound
• The Best Novels About Psychiatrists and Therapists: Fiction from the Consulting Room
• The Best Philosophical Novels About Meaning: Fiction That Asks the Real Question
• Tolstoy Books in Order: A Reading Path Through the Great Works
• Virginia Woolf’s Books in Order: Reading the Modernist of the Mind

Meaning & Mortality

Books on meaning, purpose, death, grief and living a considered life.

• Best Books on the Meaning of Life
• Books for an Existential Crisis: 7 That Actually Help
• The 10 Best Books About Death and Dying
• The 8 Best Books on Grief and Loss
• The Best Stoicism Books: 10 Picks from Marcus Aurelius to Modern Practice
• What to Read After Man’s Search for Meaning: 6 Books That Continue the Path

Existential Therapy

The best books and clear explainers on existential psychotherapy.

• Best Existential Therapy Books
• Existential vs Humanistic Therapy: What’s the Difference?
• The 6 Best Logotherapy Books (Viktor Frankl & Beyond)
• The Four Givens of Existence, Explained
• Viktor Frankl’s Books in Order: The Complete Reading Path
• What Is Existential Therapy? A Plain-English Guide

Irvin Yalom

Reviews, reading orders and guides to the books of Irvin D. Yalom.

• Irvin Yalom Books in Order (2026): The Complete Reading Guide
• Irvin Yalom’s Group Therapy Books: What to Read and When
• Irvin Yalom’s Most Famous Ideas and Quotes — and the Books They Come From
• Irvin Yalom’s Novels in Order: The Complete Reading Guide
• Which Irvin Yalom Book Should You Read First? (2026 Guide

Existential Philosophy

Beginner reading orders for the great existentialist philosophers.

• Best Books on Existentialism
• Camus Books in Order: The Absurd, Step by Step
• Kierkegaard Books: A Beginner’s Guide to the First Existentialist
• Nietzsche Books for Beginners: Where to Actually Start
• Sartre Books in Order: A Reading Path That Works

Formats & Gifts

Audiobooks, box sets and gift guides for readers of psychology.

• Psychology Book Gift Guides & Audiobooks
• The 6 Best Book Gifts for Therapists (2026 Guide)
• The Best Book Gifts for Psychology Students (Graduation-Proof Picks)
• The Best Psychology Audiobooks: 6 Listens That Actually Work in Audio

Therapy Memoirs

The best memoirs by and about therapists and their patients.

• 6 Books Like Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
• Best Therapy Memoirs
• The Best Psychiatrist Memoirs: The Healers Telling Their Own Stories