Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Elizabeth Gilbert)

Best-selling author of Eat Pray Love offers her own perspective on embracing creativity in life.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Anne Lamott)

With humour and practical advice, writer Anne Lamott addresses common questions most writers have.

The Art of Memoir (Mary Karr)

One of the foremost memoirists explores this popular literary form with wit, insight and sage advice.

The War of Art (Steven Pressfield)

An excellent guide to help creatives overcome resistance.

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within  (Natalie Goldberg)

Wild Mind: Living the Writer’s Life

(Natalie Goldberg)

The preceding two books offers Goldberg’s iconic ‘rules for writing practice’ & quintessential writing prompts.

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Julia Cameron)

The seminal guidebook about the creative process and creative self-renewal. Cameron has written more than 30 books, both non-fiction and fiction. All offer helpful insight into the creative process.

642 Tiny Things to Write About (San Francisco Writers’ Grotto)

Fun quick writing prompts. They have a series of books.

Now Write! Nonfiction (Sherry Ellis)

Essays on writing with helpful exercises.

The Arvon Book of Life Writing

(Sally Cline & Carole Angier)
Writing tips and insights on all aspects of writing biography, autobiography & memoir

Yes, And: How Improvisation Reverses ‘No, But’ Thinking and Improves Creativity and Collaboration (K. Leonard / T. Yorton)

Executives of Chicago’s famed Second City improv troupe describe the 7 key elements of improv, and offer accompanying exercises to apply in daily life

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

(Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.)

This is one of the best scientific autobiographies ever written, a combination of clarity, truth, and insight into human character. “We are all, as Byron put it, differently organized,” Jamison writes. “We each move within the restraints of our temperament and live up only partially to its possibilities.” Jamison’s ability to live fully within her limitations is an inspiration to her fellow mortals, whatever our particular burdens may be.

I Am Not Sick – I Don’t Need Help!
(Dr. Xavier Amador)

A practical guide for families & therapists describing how to help individuals accept treatment.

The Depression Workbook: A Guide for Living with Depression and Manic Depression
(Mary Ellen Copeland)

From the best-selling author, Mary Ellen Copeland, comes the Second Edition of The Depression Workbook. Learn to practice the latest research-based self-help strategies to relieve depression and address other mental health issues.

The Feeling Good Handbook
(David Burns)

Dr. David Burns is one of the prime developers of cognitive therapy, a fast-acting, drug-free treatment for designed to help the clinically depressed. In The Feeling Good Handbook, he adapts cognitive therapy to deal with the wide range of everyday problems that plague so many (chronic nervousness, panic attacks, phobias, and feelings of stress, guilt, or inferiority). The Feeling Good Handbook teaches how to remove the mental obstacles that bar you from success–from test anxiety and fear of public speaking to procrastination and self-doubt.

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem
(Nathaniel Brandon)

Nathaniel Branden’s first book, The Psychology of Self-Esteem, was published in 1969. In the quarter century since then, “self-esteem” has become trendy, particularly among educators; and in the process, it has inevitably been trivialized. Branden’s new book on the subject sets out the difference between real self-esteem and the “feel-good” approach which attempts to substitute for it.

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
(Pema Chodron)

Pema Chodron is a spiritual teacher for anyone, whether they have a spiritual path or not. Here she explains that there is a fundamental opportunity for happiness right within our reach, yet we usually miss it –

ironically, while we are caught up in attempts to escape pain and sufering.