We all go through periods when life feels kind of meaningless. Maybe your job isn’t as fulfilling as it once was. Maybe you’re recovering from a recent breakup. Or maybe you’re looking ahead to a holiday season spent away from friends and family.
Whatever your reason is for feeling a bit lost, you don’t have to go through it alone. Let the authors of these five thought-provoking books join you, and help guide you toward happiness, belonging, and a renewed sense of meaning.
Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living
By Dimitris Xygalatas
In birthday parties and coronations, in silent prayer, in fire-walks and terrifying rites of passage, in all the bewildering variety of human life, Ritual reveals the deep and subtle mechanisms that bind us together. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Dimitris Xygalatas, in the Next Big Idea App
Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends
By Marisa G. Franco
A psychologist and University of Maryland professor provides a clear and actionable blueprint for forging strong, lasting connections with others—and for becoming our happiest, most fulfilled selves in the process. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Marisa Franco, in the Next Big Idea App
How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment
By Skye C. Cleary
How to Be Authentic is a lively introduction to Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy of existentialism, as well as an exploration of the successes and failures that Beauvoir and other women have experienced in striving towards authenticity. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Skye Cleary, in the Next Big Idea App
Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides
By Geoffrey Cohen
A Stanford University psychologist applies his and others’ groundbreaking research to the myriad problems of communal existence and offers concrete solutions for improving daily life at work, in school, in our homes, and in our communities. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Geoffrey Cohen, in the Next Big Idea App
The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning
By Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko
Two Notre Dame philosophy professors invite us into the classroom to investigate what figures such as Aristotle, Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Iris Murdoch, and W. E. B. Du Bois have to say about how to live well. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by co-authors Meghan Sullivan and Paul Blaschko, in the Next Big Idea App
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