self-help for the self-help skeptic, archival norma kamali, and new haim
weekly recommendations from the passerby team
a bunch of self-help books for the self-help skeptic
Parand — who we featured a while back in our spotted passerby series — had me over at her art residency earlier this year. We ended up talking about the books that helped her recover from a breakup, work through mommy issues, and grow as a person. I’m usually pretty skeptical of self-help books, but she swore most of these were grounded in science — not your typical preachy, sales-y stuff.
Her stack was actually solid. And for someone like me who’s never really dipped into that world, I thought it was a list worth sharing. If you’re also self-help hesitant, my tip is to go for the audiobook versions. Sometimes it’s just helpful to have someone calmly explain how the brain works or why we respond to things the way we do.
These were originally meant to be shared at the top of the year — but honestly, summer feels just as good a time as any to reflect and do a little internal work.