Self-Improvement Right Off the Shelf at Prince William Public Libraries

With fiction books, there are times when readers want a complex or challenging book with rich character development and a well-developed authorial voice—and there are other times when they want a predicably enjoyable and easily readable page-turner. And with nonfiction, there are times when a reader wants a serious and nuanced examination of a complex, important issue—and sometimes, they want a brisk, easy-to-browse book with easy-to-understand advice on a specific topic or problem. Your local library has books for all those needs—here are a few recent self-help and self-improvement titles coming to your branch.

Falling in love and being in a romantic relationship is one of the most universal of experiences – something that most people go through. But just because most of us have been, are now, or will be in love at some point doesn’t mean we are all good at it. In “8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go,” bestselling author Jay Shetty draws on both ancient wisdom and modern science to lay out concrete, actionable steps to help you find love, practice it, keep it alive—and gracefully move on when it doesn’t work out.

Another experience almost as universal as love is the desire to get in better shape and live healthier. But good intentions often lead us to take on diets or exercise routines which promise much but ask too much of us. Failure to achieve your goals leads to discouragement. Nutritionist Joey Thurman has a solution to that self-defeating cycle in “The Minimum Method: The Least You Can Do to Be a Stronger, Healthier, Happier You.” His solution is exactly as it sounds—do as little as you need to get results. It’s the diet-and-exercise version of the well-known management trope “Work harder, not smarter.”

While Thurman teaches simple, effective ways to gain control over your health, Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner are interested in things outside of ourselves—BIG things. In “How Big Things Get Done,” they outline general principles and specific strategies for tackling anything from home renovations to space travel. If you struggle with project management at any level, this book will help you gain control and impose order onto what is too often a chaotic ordeal.

And to bring the focus back from infrastructure to the interpersonal, Rabbi Danya Ruttneberg draws on Jewish tradition to address the flip side of forgiveness—repentance. In “On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World,” Rabbi Ruttenberg addresses how our culture’s focus on “letting go” and encouraging people to move on from personal failings fails to address the need to address moral wrongdoing and the harm it causes. This is a book about healing, with a focus on the transgressor rather than the victim.

These are just some books addressing a broad spectrum of problem-solving books at your local library. Place a request on any of these titles at pwcva.gov/library.

Written by Kirk Johnson, Materials Services Division