Books like Year of Yes

01

Yes Please

Amy Poehler · Memoir

Yes Please is Amy Poehler's memoir-ish collection of essays about her life, career, and the things she's figured out along the way.

Both dig into self-acceptance.

02

Becoming

Michelle Obama · Memoir

Becoming is Michelle Obama's account of how a girl from a modest house on Chicago's South Side became one of the most recognized people in the world — and what that journey cost and revealed.

A kindred memoir read.

03

Daring Greatly

Brené Brown · Health

Daring Greatly is Brené Brown's argument, drawn from twelve years of qualitative research on shame and vulnerability, that the willingness to show up without guarantees — to be seen, to risk failure, to remain open in the presence of uncertainty — is not weakness but the foundation of courage, connection, and meaningful achievement.

A kindred memoir read.

04

Big Magic

Elizabeth Gilbert · Self-help

Big Magic is Elizabeth Gilbert's manifesto for living a creative life — not as a professional artistic career but as an orientation toward existence.

Both dig into fear.

05

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Trevor Noah · Memoir

Born a Crime is Trevor Noah's memoir about growing up mixed-race in South Africa during the final years of apartheid and its chaotic aftermath.

A kindred memoir read.

06

Bossypants

Tina Fey · Memoir

Bossypants is Tina Fey's memoir and comic essay collection about her upbringing in suburban Pennsylvania, her years doing improv comedy in Chicago, her time as a writer and head writer at Saturday Night Live, her creation of 30 Rock, and the experience of being a woman in charge in show business.

Both dig into self-acceptance.

07

One Small Step Can Change Your Life

Robert Maurer · Self-help

Robert Maurer's book is built around a single Japanese concept: kaizen, the practice of continuous improvement through very small steps.

Both dig into fear.

08

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Susan Cain · Psychology

Quiet is Susan Cain's argument that Western culture — and American culture in particular — has built itself around an "Extrovert Ideal" that systematically undervalues roughly a third to a half of the population.

Both dig into introversion.

09

The Courage to Be Disliked

Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga · Philosophy

The Courage to Be Disliked presents Alfred Adler's philosophy of individual psychology through a Socratic dialogue between a young man and a philosopher.

Both dig into self-acceptance.

10

The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between

Abigail Marsh · Psychology

Abigail Marsh is a Georgetown neuroscientist who studies why some people are extraordinarily altruistic and others are not.

Both dig into fear.

11

The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Gavin de Becker · Psychology

Gavin de Becker's central argument is that fear is a gift, not a problem to manage.

Both dig into fear.

12

10% Happier

Dan Harris · Memoir

10% Happier is Dan Harris's account of discovering meditation after a panic attack live on Good Morning America in 2004 forced him to confront an anxiety problem he'd been managing with cocaine and a punishing work schedule.

A kindred memoir read.