Mental Health Awareness Reading Suggestions

suggested reading & resources

Looking to learn more about mental health and find some great ways to relax? Check out these resources, available at Warren Public Library. Note: All the blurbs are from the publisher of each book.

Don’t forget to check out our useful Health and Medicine Resources for even more great information.

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson

Available at Warren Public Library and OverDrive

In Furiously Happy, number-one New York Times best-selling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best. Jenny Lawson is a must read, WPL staff favorite author.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

Available in Print at WPL and OverDrive

Gottlieb, a therapist with a Los Angeles practice, faced a crisis that caused her world to come crashing down. Enter Wendell, the quirky but seasoned therapist who seems to have come straight from Therapist Central Casting. Yet he will turn out to be anything but. Now Gottlieb invites us into her world as both clinician and patient, examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others as we teeter on the tightrope between love and desire, meaning and mortality, guilt and redemption, terror and courage, hope and change.

First We Make the Beast Beautiful by Sarah Wilson

Available on OverDrive

The Chinese believe that before you can conquer a beast, you must first make it beautiful. Sarah Wilson first came across this Chinese proverb in psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison’s memoir An Unquiet Mind, and it became the key to understanding her own lifelong struggle with anxiety. Wilson, bestselling author, journalist, and entrepreneur has helped over 1.5 million people worldwide to live better, healthier lives through her I Quit Sugar books and program. And all along, she has been managing chronic anxiety. In First, We Make the Beast Beautiful, Wilson directs her intense focus and fierce investigating skills onto her lifetime companion, looking at the triggers and treatments, the fashions and fads. She reads widely and interviews fellow sufferers, mental health experts, philosophers, and even the Dalai Lama, processing all she learns through the prism of her own experiences. Wilson offers readers comfort, humor, companionship, and practical tips for living with the Beast.

(Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation About Mental Health edited by Kelly Jensen

Available at Warren Public Library

To understand mental health, we need to talk open about it. This collection explores a wide range of topics, from the authors’ personal experiences with mental illness and understanding how our brains are wired, to exploring the do’s and don’ts of talking about mental health.

Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

Available at Warren Public Library

Collects autobiographical, illustrated essays and cartoons from the author’s popular blog and related new material that humorously and candidly deals with her own idiosyncrasies and battles with depression. Brosh is a must read, WPL staff favorite author.

The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn Saks

Available at Warren Public Library

A memoir of paranoid schizophrenia by an accomplished professor recounts her first symptoms at the age of eight, her efforts to hide the severity of her condition, and the obstacles she has overcome in the course of her treatment and marriage.

The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron

Available on OverDrive

Are you a highly sensitive person? Do you have a keen imagination and vivid dreams? Is time alone each day as essential to you as food and water? Are you noted for your empathy? Your conscientiousness? Do noise and confusion quickly overwhelm you? If your answers are yes, you may be a highly sensitive person (HSP) and Dr. Elaine Aron’s The Highly Sensitive Person is the life-changing guide you’ll want in your toolbox. Over twenty percent of people have this amazing, innate trait. Maybe you are one of them. A similar percentage is found in over 100 species, because high sensitivity is a survival strategy. It is also a way of life for HSPs. In this 20th anniversary edition of the groundbreaking classic, Dr. Elaine Aron, a research and clinical psychologist as well as an HSP herself, helps you grasp the reality of your wonderful trait, understand your past in the light of it, and make the most of it in your future.

Are U OK? by Kati Morton

Available at Warren Public Library

Get answers to your most common questions about mental health and mental illness–including anxiety, depression, bipolar and eating disorders, and more. [This book] walks readers through the most common questions about mental health and the process of getting help–from finding the best therapist to navigating harmful and toxic relationships and everything in between. In the same down-to-earth, friendly tone that makes her videos so popular, licensed marriage and family therapist and YouTube sensation Kati Morton clarifies and destigmatizes the struggles so many of us go through and encourages readers to reach out for help.

Your Brain Needs a Hug by Rae Earl

Available at Warren Public Library

Imbued with a sense of humor, understanding, and hope, Your Brain Needs a Hug is a judgment-free guide for living well with your mind. My Mad Fat Diary author Rae Earl offers her personalized advice on the A to Zs of mental health, social media, family and friendship. When she was a teenager, Rae dealt with OCD, anxiety, and an eating disorder, but she survived, and she thrived. Your Brain Needs a Hug is filled with her friendly advice, coping strategies and laugh-out-loud moments to get you through the difficult days. Witty, honest, and enlightening, this is the perfect read for feeling happier and healthier and learning to navigate life without feeling overwhelmed or isolated.

Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better

Available at Warren Public Library

Suzuki interweaves her personal story with groundbreaking research in the neurosciences, and offers practical, short exercises–4 minute Brain Hacks–to engage your mind and improve your memory, your ability to learn new skills, and function more efficiently.

Manage Your Stress by Joe Shrand

Available at Warren Public Library

This book aims to give readers a full understanding of the how and why of the human stress response. While once a vital ancient survival tool, our biological stress response may now be in overdrive when confronted by the modern world around us. Research has repeatedly shown that stress can cause physical illness if undetected and unmanaged. This book provides readers with psychological and physical strategies necessary to keep stress from undermining their health, their joy, and the happiness of those around them. These simple and practical strategies help relieve our stress, and the stress of those around us.

Switch on Your Brain by Dr. Caroline Leaf

Available on Overdrive

Scientist and therapist helps readers understand how the power of their thoughts can help them manage stress, break unhealthy patterns, use their brains more effectively, and overcome mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual obstacles.

Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

Audio Available at Warren Public Library

The highly anticipated first book by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, the voices behind the number one hit podcast My Favorite Murder! Sharing never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction, Karen and Georgia irreverently recount their biggest mistakes and deepest fears, reflecting on the formative life events that shaped them into two of the most followed voices in the nation. The book and the podcast are staff favorites.

The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living

Available at Warren Public Library

Examines the causes of stress in everyday life and presents such strategies for overcoming it as the practice of acceptance and gratitude, the use of relaxation and meditation techniques, and the cultivation of closer relationships with others.

New Title Suggestion:
Broken (in the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson

Available at Warren Public Library (Both Print and Audio)

As Jenny Lawson’s hundreds of thousands of fans know, she suffers from depression. In Broken, Jenny brings readers along on her mental and physical health journey, offering heartbreaking and hilarious anecdotes along the way. With people experiencing anxiety and depression now more than ever, Jenny humanizes what we all face in an all-too-real way, reassuring us that we’re not alone and making us laugh while doing it. Broken leaves nothing to the imagination in the most satisfying way. A treat for Jenny Lawson’s already existing fans, and destined to convert new ones, Broken is a beacon of hope and a wellspring of laughter when we all need it most.