Top Hacker News Book Recommendations in Self-Help (all time)

All Time Past 6 Months

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

Harold S. Kushner

4.6 on Amazon

3 HN comments

High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

Brendon Burchard and Hay House

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting

Lisa Genova

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.

Brené Brown

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life

Emily Nagoski Ph.D.

4.8 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Alcoholics Anonymous: The Big Book

Anonymous

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Your Brain on Porn: Internet Pornography and the Emerging Science of Addiction

Gary Wilson, Noah Church, et al.

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive: 10th Anniversary Edition

Daniel J. Siegel and Mary Hartzell

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

The Year of Magical Thinking

Joan Didion

4.5 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Surrounded by Idiots

Thomas Erikson

4.5 on Amazon

3 HN comments

The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem

Dr. Nathaniel Branden and Macmillan Audio

4.6 on Amazon

2 HN comments

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do: Take Back Your Power, Embrace Change, Face Your Fears, and Train Your Brain for Happiness and Success

Amy Morin

4.6 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich

Norman Ohler and Shaun Whiteside

4.7 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Dare: The New Way to End Anxiety and Stop Panic Attacks

Barry McDonagh

4.6 on Amazon

2 HN comments

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald

4.5 on Amazon

2 HN comments

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gobayesgoonJuly 30, 2019

'The year of magical thinking' by Joan Didion is a beautiful account of what happens when life suddenly blows in your face.

henrononOct 9, 2018

This is really moving stuff. In a similar vein, I found Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" to be a deeply personal and illuminating exploration of grief and loss.

vessenesonJuly 8, 2015

Didion is (and was) a force. Her book The Year of Magical Thinking has to be one of the best memoirs of the last 100 years; it perfectly takes you through the intersection between self indulgence, grief and healing in a single, very tough year for the author.

You can feel her insecurities in it, and you can see some of the same ones in this essay 40+ years earlier, the "Will I/won't I/Can I Be?" and the shot at writing about it from an "I've made it now, I can think sagely about it" angle, but at a very young age.

In the end, she's a hugely important American author who simply cannot resist namedropping repeatedly in the memoir of her grief over her husband's death; like most of us, she carries some of her gremlins through much of her adult life.

I think this essay is so fitting an essay for this site; it sort of reminds me in a way of Sam Altman's sage advice at 30 -- much of it brilliant -- but still written by someone with a lot of life left to live.

Ms. Didion had a lot of the same drive, insecurity and needs that drive the founders in our industry; she turned out some remarkable work; I hope that we as a group will too.

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