“True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It requires us to be who we are.” Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives—experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization.

Brown argues that we’re experiencing a spiritual crisis of disconnection, and introduces four practices of true belonging that challenge everything we believe about ourselves and each other.

In her bestselling classic, An Unquiet Mind, Kay Redfield Jamison changed the way we think about moods and madness.

Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide.

Here Jamison examines bipolar illness from the dual perspectives of the healer and the healed, revealing both its terrors and the cruel allure that at times prompted her to resist taking medication. An Unquiet Mind is a memoir of enormous candor, vividness, and wisdom—a deeply powerful book that has both transformed and saved lives.

A great book for those experiencing the physical symptoms of trauma who want a better understanding of their symptoms and to learn how to heal.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a story of beauty, hope, courage, resilience, and survival against the odds. A story about the power of love between two holocaust survivors destined to be together.

Option B shares the stories of people who've had to deal with traumatic events (single-incident or chronic), seeks to help you face adversity, become more resilient, and find joy again after life punches you in the face.

This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.

Man's Search for Meaning is a 1946 book by Viktor Frankl chronicling his experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and describing his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positive about, and then immersively imagining that outcome.

Shadows in The Sun by Gayathri Ramprasad: provides a cross-cultural lens on depression, acculturation, stigma, and access to mental health care. (TW: depression (including postpartum), eating disorder, suicide, anxiety)

A book that highlights how relationships from upbringing and intergenerational trauma shape who you are and how you can interrupt the cycle.

Based on Gabor Maté’s groundbreaking work with the severely addicted on Vancouver’s skid row, this book radically reenvisions this much-misunderstood field by taking a holistic approach. Dr. Maté presents addiction, not as a discrete phenomenon confined to an unfortunate or weak-willed few, but as a continuum that runs throughout our society.

First-time author and mental health advocate Shaheen Bhatt’s memoir is a very quick read. She effortlessly juxtaposes the puzzle of being born privileged and growing up with depression. This startlingly perspicacious book talks about the unpredictability of mental health in the most matter-of-fact way. Anyone who wants a moving personal account and an honest perspective on mental health can start with this gem.

The classic book that broke new ground by thoroughly reporting on the widespread problem of date and acquaintance rape has now been completely updated to include recent studies, issues, current events, and controversies.

In this ground-breaking book, Dr. Matsakis explains that post-traumatic stress disorder affects not just soldiers, but also survivors of many other types of trauma.

I Can’t Get Over It directly addresses survivors of trauma. It explains the nature of PTSD and describes the healing process.

This autobiographical fiction, written in the form of lyric essays, tells the story of Hoshang Merchant, an out and proud gay man, who has had to deal with dysfunctional parents, unaccepting sisters and rejection from lovers because they were scared to come out of the closet. Vividly describing his sexual encounters, Merchant doesn’t shy away from telling it how it is- be it the issues related with being out in a society that is primarily heterosexual or the need for clandestine affairs for fear of societal backlash. This book paints an accurate but yet beautifully written picture of what it is to grow up gay in India.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness takes us on an intimate journey across the Indian subcontinent—from the cramped neighborhoods of Old Delhi and the roads of the new city to the mountains and valleys of Kashmir and beyond, where war is peace and peace is war. Braiding together the lives of a diverse cast of characters who have been broken by the world they live in and then rescued, patched together by acts of love—and by hope, here Arundhati Roy reinvents what a novel can do and can be.

I'm Telling the Truth, but I'm Lying: Essays by Bassey Ikpi is a personal collection of essays exploring a Nigerian-American author's experiences navigating Bipolar II and anxiety. (TW: anxiety, depression, bipolar II)

Dr. Brené Brown offers a powerful new vision that encourages us to dare greatly: to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly, and to courageously engage in our lives.

In Coming out of Shame Gershen Kaufman and Lev Raphael expose the role shame has come to play in gay and lesbian lives. Rarely discussed but vastly important, shame powerfully shapes each individual’s development of self-esteem, identity, and intimacy—three areas in which gay men and lesbians have been extremely vulnerable to the crippling effects of shame. Tracing the historical and cultural sources of gay shame, Kaufman and Raphael reveal how gay men and lesbians have internalized shame, resulting in self-loathing and destructive behaviors.