Lisa Feldman Barrett portrait

Lisa Feldman Barrett's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Lisa Feldman Barrett recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Lisa Feldman Barrett's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Middlesex book cover1

Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides

4.2
"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and thr
2

Emotional Success: The Motivational Power of Gratitude, Compassion and Pride

David DeSteno

4.1

David DeSteno's Emotional Success is an exploration of harnessing the practical power of using positive emotion to impact decision making. Current models promote suppressing emotion and using willpower as a means of self-control which, DeSteno argues, is not viable in the long term. With comparisons to well-known studies and a balance of hard research and popular culture examples, Emotional Succes

Stumbling on Happiness book cover3

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert

4.0
• Why are lovers quicker to forgive their partners for infidelity than for leaving dirty dishes in the sink? • Why will sighted people pay more to avoid going blind than blind people will pay to regain their sight? • Why do dining companions insist on ordering different meals instead of getting what they really want? • Why do pigeons seem to have such excellent aim; why can’t we remember one song
The Principles of Psychology, Vol 1 book cover4

The Principles of Psychology, Vol 1

William James

4.1
This is the first inexpensive edition of the complete Long Course in Principles of Psychology, one of the great classics of modern Western literature and science and the source of the ripest thoughts of America’s most important philosopher. As such, it should not be confused with the many abridgements that omit key sections.
The book presents lucid descriptions of human mental activity, with detail
The Book of Human Emotions: An Encyclopaedia of Feeling from Anger to Wanderlust book cover5

The Book of Human Emotions: An Encyclopaedia of Feeling from Anger to Wanderlust

Tiffany Watt Smith

4.2
How do you feel? Is your heart fluttering in anticipation? Is your stomach tight with nerves? Are you falling in love? Feeling a bit miffed? Are you antsy with Iktsuarpok? Or giddy with dépaysement?

The Book of Human Emotions is a gleeful, thoughtful collection of 156 feelings, both rare and familiar. Tiffany Watt Smith covers the globe and draws on history, anthropology, science, art, literature,