Last year, the Telegraph chose the best-self help books to help people transform their lives. So what’s new in terms of titles and trends for the genre in 2024?
Our selection of 15 top self-help books below has three categories: health, fitness and wellness; mental wellbeing; plus personal finance and success.
Titles include Just One Thing by Dr Michael Mosley, based on the popular podcast by the late broadcaster, Humankind by Rutger Bregman, which argues that the human race is more disposed to kindness than self-interest; and The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel, which explores our relationship with cash.
This selection is for those seeking a healthier lifestyle. In The Blue Zones, explorer Dan Buettner visits parts of the world where people live longer, happier lives to learn how they do it.
Exercised by Daniel Lieberman debunks myths about fitness and even that humans never evolved to exercise, and Ultra-Processed People, by doctor and presenter Chris van Tulleken, looks at the effect of processed food on us and the planet.
Struggling to find good self-help books? You’re not alone.
Chris van Tulleken will be familiar to many as Dr Chris, who presents the television series Operation Ouch! and other medical programmes with his twin brother Alexander, or Dr Xand. In this book, he investigates the effect ultra-processed food is having on our bodies, our health and the planet. He studies the science, economics and history that has led to its production on an industrial scale and discovers we are now living in a food environment in which it is almost impossible to make different, more healthy choices about what we eat.
Based on the author and broadcaster’s popular podcast of the same name, this book is packed with small and simple steps to help improve your physical and mental health. For example, did you know that having more houseplants can boost your brain-power and your productivity, or that chocolate is not just the way to a person’s heart but also a way to help that most vital organ. Dr Mosley chats to experts and road tests the solutions he presents in these pages in his quest to find ‘just one thing’ that can make a difference to your life today.
Subtitled Secrets for Living Longer, the bestselling self-help book from explorer, educator and presenter Dan Buettner combines his research with stunning imagery from National Geographic photographers. Costa Rica and California are among the destinations he visits in search of the best strategies for longevity, which he finds in the Blue Zones of the title – places around the world where people enjoy longer and fuller lives. This volume works perfectly as a companion to Buettner’s Netflix series Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.
Journalist and author Rina Raphael explores the wellness industry, which has grown from modest beginnings into a $4.4 trillion movement that promises something for everyone. Her book poses pertinent questions about why we are all suddenly feeling unwell and what happens when the cure becomes as bad as the disease? She finds that our obsession has been driven by gender inequalities and structural sexism within medicine and society but also shows how we might shape a better future for the movement and for our wellbeing.
Professor Russell Foster shares his lifetime’s work and takes us on a journey through the science of our body clocks. Our 21st-century lifestyles are very different from those of our ancestors, since we often work, exercise and socialise long after dark, forgetting that our bodies are governed by a biological clock that guides us towards the natural time to do these things. He reveals the best time to eat, go for a walk and even take our medication, plus how we can re-attune ourselves to our natural rhythm and lead happier, healthier lives.
A paleoanthropologist at Harvard University, Daniel Lieberman is renowned for his research into the evolution of physical activity. He is also an avid marathon runner – a passion that has earned him the nickname ‘The Barefoot Professor’ since he often runs without shoes. His book draws on more than a decade of scientific studies to explain how human beings never evolved to exercise, and he debunks persistent myths about sitting, speed, strength and endurance, instead promoting the theory that moderate exertion is the way forward.
This category of the best self-help books focuses on our thinking. In Build the Life You Want, Oprah Winfrey and Arthur C Brooks collaborate on tips for empowerment, while Atomic Habits by James Clear advocates practising small, persistent good habits.
Dr Julie Smith’s book Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before? offers coping strategies you will probably wish you had learnt when you were younger, while this Telegraph article is for those who are just getting started with self-help books.
Oprah Winfrey and Harvard professor Arthur C Brooks invite readers to take the first steps on their journey towards greater happiness. Drawing on their own experiences, they offer easy-to-understand, actionable strategies for increasing empowerment, including how to manage emotions and expectations, and turn challenges into opportunities. The message is to change yourself instead of waiting for the outside world to change, and in so doing to improve relationships with family and friends, while finding fulfilment and inner peace.
Clinical psychologist Dr Julie Smith presents a collection of coping strategies for everyday life aimed at building resilience and restoring control. Dr Smith has attracted millions of followers on social media, through which she also presents educational content, and like those posts, the information in this book is present in short, digestible sections. So whether you want to manage your low moods or anxiety, learn how to motivate yourself better or develop your self-confidence, simply turn to the relevant entry and read away.
Dutch historian, author and journalist Rutger Bregman counters the long-held theory that human beings are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. Instead, he proposes, we have a remarkable capacity for kindness and it is more realistic to assume people are good. To illustrate this, Bregman revisits famous events – such as the aftermath of the Blitz in London during the Second World War – and reframes them. The result is a new perspective on 200,000 years of human history that offers hope for achieving lasting change in society.
Subtitled Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope, Johann Hari’s book offers a radical new way of thinking about depression and anxiety, conditions for which the journalist and author has been treated since he was a child. In investigating his own condition, Hari meets social scientists who say depression and anxiety are caused not by a chemical imbalance in the brain but by the way we live today. And more experts reveal the very different solutions that are being uncovered, which promise to change the way we think about depression
One of the bestselling self-help books of recent years, Atomic Habits promotes the theory that, when it comes to transforming your life, small and persistent habits yield the biggest changes. Say hello to Habit Stacking, the Goldilocks Zone and the Two-Minute Rule – all simple life hacks – as Clear explores psychology and neuroscience to support his theories. He also draws on the experiences of inspirational real-life success stories of leading CEOs, scientists and athletes and reveals the habits that make them happy and successful.
These top self-help books can be regarded as an investment, since the hope is they may spark thinking and action that repays their cost several times over.
Money Box by Paul Lewis will appeal to anyone who has ever tuned in to the long-running Radio 4 programme for financial tips, while Time Wise by Amanda Imber studies the productivity of the super-successful. And if you’re still a sceptic, here are the best self-help books for those who don’t do self-help.
First broadcast in 1977, the BBC Radio 4 programme Money Box has long been a trusted source of financial advice for listeners. In this book, current presenter Paul Lewis presents more essential tips for managing your money, from understanding credit cards to writing your will. Perhaps most importantly, he breaks down the often confusing financial jargon into easy-to-understand language and reveals how to beat the banks at their own game.
Amantha Imber’s bestselling self-help book is subtitled Productivity Secrets of the World’s Most Successful People and, like those contributors, it does exactly what it promises to do. It outlines some of the counterintuitive but effective methods that high-achievers employ to boost their productivity, along with their personal strategies. In the case of Professor Cal Newport, the secret might be his multiple kanban boards, while productivity expert Laura Mae Martin thinks outside the inbox and does a spot of ‘shape-shifting’. A revelatory read.
Nafisa Bakkar is the CEO and co-founder of Amaliah, the award-winning media platform for Muslim women. In this book she shares the story of how, despite having no experience, capital or network, she built the business from scratch before helping hundreds of others to do the same. Whether your goal is to transform a side-hustle into a full-time career or to get a money-making idea off the ground, this is the blueprint for building your business.
Award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories on some of the more unusual ways people think about money in his bestselling self-help book. These tales are, in the words of the book’s subtitle, Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness, and his theory is that doing well with money is more about how you behave than what you know. But as he also points out, behaviour can be hard to teach even to the smartest people.
