Come fall, lifestyle authors are looking abroad, most often to trendy Scandinavia, but also to blue zones and longevity villages across the globe. Those sticking closer to home extol childhood resilience, “bad” food, and even boredom.
Top 10
The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully
Aaron Carroll. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Nov. 7
The only thing dietary experts seem able to agree on is that some ingredients are simply bad for you. But as Carroll explains, these oversimplifications are both wrong and dangerous.
The Blue Zones of Happiness: A Blueprint for a Happier Life
Dan Buettner. National Geographic, Oct. 3
Buettner follows up the two previous health-centric Blue Zones books with a new installment focused on mental well-being.
Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self
Manoush Zomorodi. St. Martin’s, Sept. 5
PW’s review called podcast host Zomorodi’s first book a “paradoxically lively treatise on the benefits of boredom.”
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. Penguin, Aug. 29
García and Miralles interviewed more than 100 residents of the Japanese village with the world’s highest percentage of 100 year olds. The key theme is ikigai—Japanese for “a reason for being.”
In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer’s
Joseph Jebelli. Little, Brown, Oct. 31
Jebelli’s history of this baffling disease sweeps readers from 19th-century Germany and post-WWII England to the jungles of Papua New Guinea and the research labs of Japan.
New York School of Interior Design: Home; The Foundations of Enduring Spaces
Ellen S. Fisher and Jen Renzi. Clarkson, Potter, Oct. 3
From the nation’s leading institution for interior design comes a design-school-in-a-book and handy reference for decorating the home.
A Stash of One’s Own: Knitters on Loving, Living with, and Letting Go of Yarn
Clara Parkes. Abrams, Sept. 12
This essay collection celebrates yarn—specifically, the knitter’s reputation for acquiring it in large quantities and storing it away in what’s lovingly referred to as a “stash.”
The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity
Esther Perel. Harper, Oct. 10
With the right approach, therapist Perel argues, couples reeling from infidelity can grow and learn from these tumultuous experiences, together or apart.
There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge)
Linda Åkeson McGurk. S&S/Touchstone, Oct. 3
Bringing Up Bébé meets Last Child in the Woods in a personal narrative about how Scandinavian culture could hold the key to raising healthier and hardier American children.
The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations
Oprah Winfrey. Flatiron, Oct. 17
A lavishly designed and photographed book collects gems of insight from Winfrey’s TV show Super Soul Sunday.
Lifestyle Listings
Body, Mind & Spirit
Flatiron
The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations by Oprah Winfrey (Oct. 17, hardcover, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-13806-4) features selections from conversations between Winfrey and guests on her show Super Soul Saturday, along with essays from Winfrey about her personal spiritual journey and photos of her home in California, where each episode is filmed.
Grand Central Life & Style
The Clarity Cleanse: 12 Steps to Finding Emotional Healing, Spiritual Fulfillment, and Renewed Energy by Habib Sadeghi (Dec. 26, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-4555-4224-6). The spiritual guru to Gwyneth Paltrow (who contributes a foreword) presents a 90-day pathway for clearing the clutter from your emotional life. 35,000-copy announced first printing.
Harper Wave
Just Sit: A Meditation Guidebook for People Who Know They Should but Don’t by Sukey Novogratz and Elizabeth Novogratz (Dec. 26, hardcover, $23.99, ISBN 978-0-06-267286-5) is a playfully illustrated meditation guidebook that includes an eight-week plan for busy novices and makes clear that meditation doesn’t have to be complicated or follow a specific protocol.
Inner Traditions/Bear & Co.
Aleister Crowley in America: Art, Espionage, and Sex Magick in the New World by Tobias Churton (Dec. 19, hardcover, $40, ISBN 978-1-62055-630-6). Using previously unpublished diaries and letters, Churton explores the notorious British occultist’s relationship with the U.S., detailing his espionage activities, influence on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and quest to spread new spiritual ideas.
Sounds True
Leopard Warrior: A Journey into the African Teachings of Ancestry, Instinct, and Dreams by John Lockley (Nov. 1, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-62203-903-6) shares the story of how the author became one of the first white men in recent times to be initiated as a sangoma—traditional priest and healer—in the Xhosa lineage of South Africa.
Health & Fitness
Abrams
Skin Deep: Notes on Beauty from the World’s Most Famous Faces by Bee Shapiro (Sept. 12, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-4197-2666-8). In this collection of more than 40 columns, New York Times writer Shapiro gets some of the world’s most photographed people to share their beauty and skin care routines.
Addicus
Lung Cancer: A Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment by Walter Scott (Sept. 1, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-1-943886-67-8). The author, who has treated thousands of lung cancer patients, helps readers understand the process, from getting a diagnosis to going through treatment.
American Diabetes Association
The Type 1 Diabetes Self-Care Manual: A Complete Guide to Type 1 Diabetes Across the Lifespan by Jamie Wood and Anne Peters (Nov. 1, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-58040-620-8). Endocrinologists Wood and Peters present a reference for the nearly 1.5 million Americans with type 1 diabetes, as well as for their family and friends.
Arcade
Backbone: Living with Chronic Pain Without Turning into One by Karen Duffy (Nov. 7, hardcover, $22.99, ISBN 978-1-62872-795-1). The New York Times bestselling author, former MTV veejay, and Revlon model suffers from sarcidosis located in her brain. Here she delivers an inspirational manual to surviving chronic pain.
Atria
The Clever Gut Diet: How to Revolutionize Your Body from the Inside Out by Michael Mosley (Sept. 26, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-5011-7273-1). The New York Times bestselling author of The Fast Diet and The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet explains how current research into the microbiome, the body’s collection of bacteria, can inform health and fitness decisions.
Columbia Univ.
Conquering Lyme Disease: Science Bridges the Great Divide by Brian Fallon and Jennifer Sotsky (Dec. 12, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-0-231-18384-0). With more than 300,000 cases diagnosed annually, Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne illness in the United States. Columbia University Medical Center physicians Fallon and Sotsky give an overview of current research aimed at both patients and practitioners.
Da Capo Lifelong
The End of Old Age: A Hopeful Guide for Ourselves and Our Loved Ones by Marc E. Agronin (Jan. 16, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-7382-1998-1). Leading gerontologist Agronin (How We Age) presents a hopeful model of aging supported by scientific research and his own experience—a guide to understanding how we can make the journey better.
The Experiment
How We Eat with Our Eyes and Think with Our Stomachs: Learn to See the Hidden Influences That Shape Your Eating Habits by Melanie Mühl and Diana von Kopp (Oct. 31, hardcover, $16.95, ISBN 978-1-61519-405-6). Journalist Mühl and psychologist von Kopp use behavioral psychology, biology, and neuroscience to uncover how our decisions about food are made.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully by Aaron Carroll (Nov. 7, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-0-544-95256-0). A physician and New York Times Upshot contributor mines the latest evidence to argue that many “bad” ingredients actually aren’t unhealthy, and in some cases are essential. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Johns Hopkins Univ.
Children’s Medicines: What Every Parent, Grandparent, and Teacher Needs to Know by Edward A. Bell (Dec. 3, hardcover, $55, ISBN 978-1-4214-2374-6). A pediatric pharmacist for nearly 30 years, Bell combines up-to-date science with his own experience to answer questions about whether, when, and what medications to give to infants, children, and teenagers.
Little, Brown
In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer’s by Joseph Jebelli (Oct. 31, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-316-36079-1). An expert in the field of Alzheimer’s research and treatment offers a biography of one of history’s most fascinating and confounding diseases, from its discovery more than 100 years ago to today’s race toward a cure.
Norton
Counting Backwards: A Doctor’s Notes on Anesthesia by Henry Jay Przybylo (Nov. 14, hardcover, $25.95, ISBN 978-0-393-25443-3). An anesthesiologist for over 30 years delivers a moving exploration of this common but mysterious medical procedure, sharing tales of near-disastrous mistakes, life-saving successes, and moments of grace.
Penguin/Avery
The End of Alzheimer’s: The First Program to Prevent and Reverse Cognitive Decline by Dale Bredesen (Aug. 22, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-7352-1620-4). Neurologist Bredesen presents a plan based on scientific research and clinical results for preventing and reversing Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline by addressing metabolic imbalances with lifestyle modifications.
Penguin/Avery/Krauss
Wild Mediterranean: The Age-old, Science-new Plan for a Healthy Gut, with Food You Can Trust by Stella Metsovas (Aug. 1, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-553-49646-8). This practical resource for restoring the microbial balance in our guts and rebooting overall health features more than 50 of Metsovas’s “village-to-table” recipes, based on the probiotic-rich cuisines favored by historically healthy populations and her own family heritage.
Rodale
The Four-Pack Revolution: How You Can Aim Lower, Cheat on Your Diet, and Still Lose Weight & Keep It Off by Chael Sonnen and Ryan Parsons (Dec. 26, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-62336-963-7). MMA fighter Sonnen and sports performance specialist Parsons provide an alternative to extreme diets, helping readers adjust their weight-loss expectations and learn how to meet health goals while still enjoying life.
Rowman & Littlefield
What to Believe When You’re Expecting: A New Look at Old Wives’ Tales in Pregnancy by Jonathan Schaffir (Oct. 8, hardcover, $30, ISBN 978-1-5381-0207-7). When a woman is pregnant, she may hear no end of folktales about what will affect her baby or pregnancy. Schaffir examines where these stories come from, and which ones may actually be true.
Scribner
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker (Oct. 3, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-5011-4431-8). The director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab synthesizes decades of research and clinical practice to explain how to harness sleep’s powerful health benefits.
St. Martin’s/Griffin
Hungry Girl: Clean & Hungry: Obsessed! by Lisa Lillien (Sept. 5, trade paper, $21.99, ISBN 978-1-250-08725-6). Keeping in line with the current clean-eating food trend, the author behind the Hungry Girl brand shares newly healthy recipes for comfort food staples.
Home & Hobbies
Abrams
A Stash of One’s Own: Knitters on Loving, Living with, and Letting Go of Yarn by Clara Parkes (Sept. 12, hardcover, $22.99, ISBN 978-1-4197-2704-7). New York Times bestselling author Parkes returns with a collection of essays and stories from star knitters.
Aurum
Nørth: How to Live Scandinavian by Brontë Aurell (Sept. 7, hardcover, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-78131-652-8) is an insider’s guide to the countries of the Nørth, taking readers through Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in order to experience the best in Scandinavian design, philosophy, cookery, and culture.
Clarkson Potter
New York School of Interior Design: Home; The Foundations of Enduring Spaces by Ellen S. Fisher and Jen Renzi (Oct. 3, hardcover, $60, ISBN 978-0-8041-3719-5). Built on the home study course that is the foundation of the school’s curriculum, Fisher and Renzi’s generously illustrated manual provides a comprehensive education in home design and decor.
DK
How Not to Kill Your Houseplant: Survival Tips for the Horticulturally Challenged by Veronica Peerless (Aug. 15, hardcover, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-4654-6330-2). Full of helpful tips and pictures, this guide for those with a brown thumb goes over care for more than 50 different types of popular houseplants, and explains how to make your home a plant-safe environment.
Gibbs Smith
New York Behind Closed Doors by Polly Devlin (Sept. 5, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-1-4236-4733-1) takes a look inside the homes of New York City’s artists, designers, writers, and socialites. Annie Schlecter’s photographs complement Devlin’s in-depth interviews with the homeowners.
Glitterati
Decorate This, Not That! Big Design in Tiny Spaces by Janet Lee (Jan. 7, hardcover, $35, ISBN 978-0-9987474-3-9) picks up where author Lee’s debut book, Decorating in a Nutshell, leaves off, as a chic, budget-friendly guide to decorating and living stylishly in pint-size spaces.
Penguin UK
Hygge: The Danish Art of Happiness by Marie Tourell Søderberg (Sept. 1, hardcover, $21.95, ISBN 978-0-7181-8533-6). Danish actress Søderberg has traveled the length and breadth of her home country to create a guide to cooking, decorating, and entertaining the hygge way.
Sterling
Upscale Downsizing: Creating a Stylish, Elegant, Smaller Home by Leslie Linsley (Oct. 3, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-1-4549-2197-4). Using examples that range from 600-square-foot apartments to a small cottage, home-style guru Linsley shows how to achieve maximum aesthetic results in minimal space.
Tuttle
Japanese Knitting Stitch Bible: 260 Exquisite Designs by Hitomi Shida, trans. by Gayle Roehm (Oct. 10, trade paper, $16.95, ISBN 978-4-8053-1453-1). Shida’s original designs and variations on classic stitches fill out this book, intended for tyro and veteran knitters alike, illustrated with detailed, step-by-step diagrams.
Relationships & Self-Help
Atria/Beyond Words
De-escalate: How to Calm an Angry Person in 90 Seconds or Less by Douglas E. Noll (Sept. 12, trade paper, $16, ISBN 978-1-58270-655-9). Mediator Noll lays out a set of social listening and communication skills, formerly used with prison inmates, that are designed to defuse aggression and emotionally volatile situations.
Bloomsbury USA
Lost Connections by Johann Hari (Jan. 23, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-63286-830-5) emphasizes lifestyle’s role in causing depression. Journalist Hari (Chasing the Scream) visits various settings and situations around the world that demonstrate his insights, such as a group of people living in tunnels beneath Las Vegas, an Amish community in Indiana, and an uprising in Berlin.
Da Capo Lifelong
The Unspeakable Loss: How Do You Live When a Child Dies? by Nisha Zenoff (Nov. 7, trade paper, $16.99, ISBN 978-0-7382-1975-2). A licensed psychotherapist and grief counselor (who herself has lost a child) offers practical inspiration to help parents and others heal emotionally after a child has died.
Dutton
The All-or-Nothing Marriage: How the Best Marriages Work by Eli J. Finkel (Sept. 19, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-0-525-95516-0). Northwestern psychology professor Fink looks at the structure of successful modern marriages, from the “traditional” to the utterly nontraditional.
Familius
Being a Proactive Grandfather: How to Make a Difference by Richard Eyre (Sept. 5, trade paper, $14.99, ISBN 978-1-945547-27-0) encourages new grandfathers to ask themselves an important question: what kind of grandfather will you be—disengaged, limited, supportive, or proactive?
Firefly/Robert Rose
The Parents’ Guide to Baby-Led Weaning: With 125 Recipes by Jennifer House (Sept. 1, trade paper, $19.95, ISBN 978-0-7788-0579-3) discusses a parenting approach that involves starting a baby on real table food from the start (at approximately 6 months old, depending on the baby) and skipping the puree stage completely.
Guilford
Getting Ahead of ADHD: What Next-Generation Science Says About Treatments That Work—and How You Can Make Them Work for Your Child by Joel T. Nigg (Aug. 7, trade paper, $14.95, ISBN 978-1-4625-2493-8). Researcher Nigg tells parents about promising new ways of improving behaviors in kids with ADHD, distinguishing unsupported, even dangerous approaches from bona fide breakthroughs.
Hachette/Twelve
Supernormal: Childhood Adversity and the Amazing Untold Story of Resilience by Meg Jay (Nov. 14, hardcover, $28, ISBN 978-1-4555-5915-2) profiles people who soar to unexpected heights after childhood adversity. Jay (The Defining Decade) offers both case studies and stories from public figures. 60,000-copy announced first printing.
Harmony
The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too) by Gretchen Rubin (Sept. 12, hardcover, $22, ISBN 978-1-5247-6091-5). The author of The Happiness Project uses responses to the question “How do I respond to expectations?” to sort people into one of four “Tendencies”: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels.
Harper
The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity by Esther Perel (Oct. 10, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-232258-6) provides a provocative look at infidelity from couples’ therapist Perel (Mating in Captivity), arguing for a more nuanced and less judgmental perspective toward marital transgressions. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
HarperOne
Waking Up in Winter: In Search of What Really Matters at Midlife by Cheryl Richardson (Dec. 19, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-268166-9). Drawing on private journals, the author of Take Time for Your Life explores the obstacles and opportunities that arise when we reach midlife. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Harper Wave
The Grown-up’s Guide to Teenage Humans: How to Decode Their Behavior, Develop Unshakable Trust, and Raise a Respectable Adult by Josh Shipp (Sept. 19, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-265406-9). Aiming to help parents, teachers, and other caregivers better understand the teens in their lives, youth advocate Shipp breaks down teenagerdom’s phases, from sixth to 12th grade. 50,000-copy announced first printing.
Little, Brown
What Made Maddy Run: The Secret Struggles and Tragic Death of an All-American Teen by Kate Fagan (Aug. 1, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-0-316-35654-1). ESPN commentator Fagan considers the mounting pressures on young people, and on college athletes in particular, through the story of a University of Pennsylvania star athlete who committed suicide in 2014. 40,000-copy announced first printing.
Morrow
13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do: Raising Self-Assured Children and Training Their Brains for a Life of Happiness, Meaning, and Success by Amy Morin (Sept. 19, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-256573-0). The author of the international bestseller 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do turns her focus to parents, teaching them how to raise mentally strong and resilient children. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
National Geographic
The Blue Zones of Happiness: A Blueprint for a Better Life by Dan Buettner (Oct. 3, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-4262-1848-4). The author of The Blue Zones Solution reveals the secrets of the world’s happiest places and discusses how readers can apply those lessons to their lives.
Oxford Univ.
Happier? The History of a Cultural Movement That Aspired to Transform America by Daniel Horowitz (Dec. 1, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-19-065564-8) illuminates how positive psychology, one of the most influential academic fields of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, has infused American culture with captivating promises for a happier society.
Penguin
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles (Aug. 29, hardcover, $20, ISBN 978-0-14-313072-7). An international bestseller aims to make the Japanese concept of ikigai—the happiness of always being busy—a household word in the U.S. as well by revealing the secrets of the world’s longest-lived people, in Ogimi, Okinawa.
Running Press
Life Is Like a Musical: How Broadway Can Help You Live Your Best Life by Tim Federle (Oct. 3, hardcover, $18, ISBN 978-0-7624-6264-3). Following the success of Tequila Mockingbird, Federle returns with a self-help compendium of life lessons learned during a career on Broadway. 30,000-copy announced first printing.
Scribner
The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eva Eger (Sept. 5, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-3078-6) is a powerful memoir—and practical guide to healing—from psychologist Eger, whose experiences as a Holocaust survivor inform how she treats patients and helps them to escape the prisons of their own minds.
Simon & Schuster/TED
Who Are You, Really? The Surprising Puzzle of Personality by Brian Little (Aug. 15, hardcover, $16.99, ISBN 978-1-5011-1996-5). Traditionally, scientists have emphasized what they call the first and second natures of personality—genes and culture, respectively. Little makes the case for a third nature—the pursuit of personal projects and idealistic dreams.
S&S/Touchstone
Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do by John Bargh (Oct. 17, hardcover, $26, ISBN 978-1-5011-0121-2). Psychologist Bargh’s important research into the unconscious mind informed bestsellers like Gladwell’s Blink and Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. Bargh’s first book from a major house presents the results of two decades of work.
There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather: A Scandinavian Mom’s Secrets for Raising Healthy, Resilient, and Confident Kids (from Friluftsliv to Hygge) by Linda Åkeson McGurk (Oct. 3, hardcover, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-5011-4362-5). This lively, insightful memoir from McGurk asks whether the nature-centric parenting of her native Sweden holds the key to healthier, happier lives for her U.S.-raised children.
St. Martin’s
Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi (Sept. 5, hardcover, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-250-12495-1). WNYC’s Note to Self podcast host gives readers permission to unplug from their devices, get bored, and tap into a greater storehouse of creativity.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the print run for The Clarity Cleanse.
