Live well.

Here’s the last of my three-part resource blast for those of you looking to make (and follow through on) resolutions for the new year. Today’s post is a grab bag of rare non-fiction, self-help-y titles that have actually stuck with me. (Last week I posted on resources for becoming a more effective teacher, and the week before I posted on resources for meeting writing goals and improving your craft.)

The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the American Appetite by David Kessler

This book explores how eating has become an area of our lives where we don’t really understand what we’re doing or why. Nor, oftentimes, do we understand why certain foods exercise the pull they do over us.

 What I liked best about this book was how it changed the way I view an encounter with tempting foods. No, I am not now Ms. Self-Control, but I do find that it’s easier to resist commercial items. I can understand that they’ve been engineered, not to satisfy my craving, but to encourage it. I really don’t like the idea of being manipulated in this way. See my full post on the book (plus the “Love Cake” YouTube video that won’t cost you any calories) here. 

Brain Rules: 12 Rules for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina

I listened to this on audiobook well over a year ago, and many of Medina’s points are still present with me. You can get the skinny on the rules here, but you’ll thank yourself if you go ahead and read (or listen to) the whole book. It’s consummately readable and memorable, and Medina practices what he preaches when it comes to making the concepts “stick.” I just requested Brain Rules for Baby, so we’ll see if Medina offers something new when he weighs in on parenting questions.

The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

This book helps us see that there are multiple ways of communicating and experiencing love when interacting with others. It opened my eyes to the fact that I was showing love the way I wanted it to be shown to me rather than the way the other person would most fully experience that love. While you could get the concept of this book from a summary, it’s worth taking the time to zip through this quick read to actually absorb the implications of the differences in our preferred love languages. So go on, love lots. But love with purpose, too: to make the people you care about feel how much you love them.