Kate Riley’s novel ‘Ruth’ was inspired by her year in an insular religious community

This book answers the simple but essential question: Why can’t we all get along?

Moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains why people around the world, including liberals and conservatives in the United States, have different moral frameworks. He argues that moral judgments are emotional, not logical—they are based on stories rather than reason. Consequently, liberals and conservatives lack a common language, and reason-based arguments about morality are ineffective. This leads to political polarization.

The Righteous Mind explores how our divergent moralities evolved, why morality is about more than just fairness, and how we can counter our natural self-righteousness to decrease political divides.

Western culture is steeped in individualism, the worldview that encourages you to pursue individual happiness and prizes personal freedom as the highest societal good. But, according to cultural commentator David Brooks, this individualist worldview breeds selfishness and deprives your life of greater meaning. Consequently, he argues that you should embrace relationalism—the worldview that prioritizes selflessness and service to others—to lead a deeply fulfilling life.

In his 2019 book, The Second Mountain, Brooks details his own experiences to explain why the relationalist approach to life is more satisfying than its individualist counterpart. Along the way, he outlines the four commitments that are crucial to relationalism—your vocation, marriage, community, and belief system—and provides actionable steps to making these commitments.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Brooks’s distinction between individualism and relationalism, followed by a foray into the four commitments that constitute relationalist living. Throughout the guide, we’ll also discuss additional strategies for making Brooks’s commitments and examine counterarguments about the importance of these commitments.

Do you belong to a community you care about and want to improve? If not, have you ever wondered how to establish or join a new community? In either case, community expert Charles Vogl can help you achieve your goals with the advice in his 2016 book, The Art of Community. Vogl covers everything from the beginning stages of community development to the roles and responsibilities of community leaders.

In this guide, we’ll explain what a community is, explore some of the fundamental guidelines all communities should follow, and discuss Vogl’s advice for instituting a community meeting place and set of customs. Then, we’ll talk about how you can use lore, emblems, and mementos to enhance belonging within your community. Finally, we’ll discuss community growth, including best practices for incorporating new members and managing community ranks. In our commentary, we’ll explore other experts’ opinions about what makes a community worthwhile and how to make the most of your community experience.

In the age of science, we’ve turned our backs on the myths our ancestors believed in. However, could it be that in giving up those stories, we’ve lost a crucial part of the human experience? In Maps of Meaning, Jordan Peterson argues that mythology provides a psychological tool that helps us create meaning in a chaotic world. Beneath their fanciful trappings, creation stories and heroic quests give us the moral foundations of society and the tools for adapting to life’s challenges. Perhaps even more importantly, myths teach us to recognize our individual capacity for good and evil.

In this guide, we’ll examine Peterson’s arguments on how myth affects the mind, mythology’s fundamental archetypes and stories, and how to apply the lessons of myth to live a more well-rounded life. We’ll also look at alternative interpretations of mythological stories, what science says about the intersection of myth and cognitive development, as well as how the symbols of myth have taken new form in the stories of today.

Do you want to learn to get more out of the novels you read? Are you interested in learning how authors communicate through literary devices like symbols, archetypes, and allusions?

How to Read Literature Like a Professor is a crash course in the art of reading intelligently. In this book, you’ll learn how to identify common literary conventions and gain the skills necessary to analyze them like a professor would. You’ll discover why Goose had to die in Top Gun and why sex scenes aren’t always about sex in literature.

Do you look forward to a time when you’ll be happier? In Happier, Harvard professor and positive psychology expert Tal Ben-Shahar argues that greater happiness is accessible to everyone now. He argues that happiness is not an end goal, but an ongoing journey.

Ben-Shahar addresses common misconceptions and offers practical strategies to cultivate happiness in our everyday lives. In this guide, we’ll explore Ben-Shahar’s definition of happiness and consider ways in which people often get the pursuit of happiness wrong. We’ll discuss why happiness is a worthy cause and provide practical strategies to help you prioritize your happiness. Throughout the guide, we’ll supplement Ben-Shahar’s advice with research in the field of positive psychology and additional insights from authors like Catherine Price (The Power of Fun), Nicholas Carr (The Shallows), and Desmond Tutu and the 14th Dalai Lama (The Book of Joy).

Is there something you’ve dreamed of doing, but never have? Are you waiting for the right motivation to move you toward your goal? If so, then you’re going about it all wrong. In The Motivation Myth, Jeff Haden argues that you shouldn’t wait for motivation to start you down the road to success. Instead, you make your own motivation by creating a plan, breaking it into achievable steps, celebrating every win, and persevering through disappointments. Motivation isn’t a push—it’s momentum that you generate yourself.

In this guide, we’ll explain Haden’s approach to kickstarting your path to success and creating a cycle of positive reinforcement that builds motivation as you go along. We’ll compare Haden’s suggestions with those of other productivity experts with practical tips on managing time, avoiding distraction, and maintaining mental focus. We’ll also explore what wellness experts say about chasing ambition versus finding contentment in everyday life.

Although we live longer today and have more material wealth than ever, many people feel anxious rather than happy. In Flow, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi offers an antidote. People are happiest when they feel in control of their inner thoughts and feelings and experience a “flow state”: a sense of enjoyment, purpose, and meaning.

Csikszentmihalyi explains: how controlling and ordering your consciousness brings flow and enjoyment, which personality characteristics produce flow, and how to find flow in your work and relationships.