No catches, no fine print just unadulterated book loving, with your favourite books saved to your own digital bookshelf.
New members get entered into our monthly draw to win £100 to spend in your local bookshop Plus lots lots more…
Find out moreLooking to change your life? Whether it’s physical, emotional or spiritual change you seek, these books may have some answers. If you’re seeking to enlighten, enlarge or explore your mind, check out our Mind & Body section for a more comprehensive range of books.
Future-proof your life through your forties, fifties and beyond with these delicious, fuss-free recipes that restore, rejuvenate and revive. From Seared Sirloin on Pan-Roasted Veg to The Mother of All Greek Salads, Best Lunch Wrap Ever to Three Fire Ginger Cake, the recipes in this book come together to create a vibrant menu bursting with mouth-watering flavours.
Delicious recipes and the ultimate wellbeing plan for a healthy gut in 6 weeks. Following on from SKIN, bestselling lifestyle and wellbeing writer Liz Earle presents her brand new plan, The Good Gut Guide. The book takes a close look at the link between the gut and our physical and mental health and provides a practical, easy-to-follow 6-week programme to improve your wellbeing from within. Beautifully illustrated throughout, each week focuses on a different aspect of transforming your digestive system. From detox and cleansing, healing and repopulating, to nourishing the good guys, balancing your whole body and, finally, maintenance and radiance from the inside out.
Because healthy relationships are key to good mental health, and at a time when mental health issues amongst adolescents are increasing at an unforeseen rate, helping them to build and sustain these relationships has never been more important.
A simple, clear book to help those suffering from anxiety and stress. Written by James Cowart, PhD, an American psychologist who specialises in treating depression and anxiety, this is a relatively short book, it feels safe to pick up, is easy to read and understand, and in particular the exercises feel achievable. While primarily for those suffering from anxiety and stress, this would also be suitable for their relations or friends. Anxiety touches nearly all of us in some way, the explanation of anxiety, and the coping mechanisms using cognitive behavioural therapy, should help create a greater understanding of anxiety and how it can be reduced or even stopped.
This compact guide provides wisdom from the Nordics, a region long known for its healthy and progressive lifestyle. It debunks myths on things we have been told are not good for us but actually can be: did you know drinking coffee will promote your health? Or that more people die of lack of Vitamin D than they do of skin cancer? By providing pragmatic and realistic advice, Dr Marklund gives you the power to make a difference in your own life today and for the future.
Featuring 120 recipes including loaves, buns, cakes, biscuits and bites, the bakes are all designed to promote gut health using easy baking methods and natural ingredients, with some using simple sourdough starters made from just flour, water and air. Modern Baker is the ultimate healthy baking bible and will give you the tools to be confident, experiment and create delicious artisan bakes in your own kitchen. Modern Baker, which opened in Oxford in 2014, passionately supports three key principles: good health, good provenance and most importantly, great taste.
Water has always had the magical power to cure... writes Roger Deakin in his bestseller Waterlog. This reasoning served as the inspiration for Minihane to take his new obsession with wild swimming to greater heights, with the goal of swimming in every river, lake, lido and bay which Deakin visited on his own trip in the mid-1990s. But beyond his plans to use the journey as a means to see and experience the UK's most scenic locations, it was also a way of soothing his troubled mind and finding a path back to happiness after finally admitting he had a problem with anxiety. A very different book from Deakin's Waterlog, this is a journey of overcoming emotional and psychological problems with swimming as the medium for recovery. But when Minihane's endeavour is brought to an unexpected halt and he is unable to escape his anxieties in the water, he must discover the means to face them head-on. Turning to professional help and relying on the support of a growing band of swimming fanatics, he learns why his persistent worrying has developed into crippling anxiety and develops the tools to overcome it. While Floating may bring readers back years later to Deakin's spectacular swimming spots, Minihane's wonderful book is about more: coming to the understanding that in life, as in swimming, we sometimes need to let the current lead us and learn how to float in choppy waters.
Quite simply, a go to book for anyone who would like to explore their potential. You do not have to consider yourself (or have been told that you are) a maverick, in order to connect to the thoughts on offer here. Thoughtful, encouraging, and bitingly realistic, Phil Beadle made me smile, nod, and have quite a few ahah! moments as I read. I found the layout a little unsettling to begin with, however soon got used to having the flow of the words interrupted for a second as my mind took in the alternative way of punctuating the highlights. Chapter 11 struck a particular chord with me and cemented my own thoughts on the subject. As I explored, as I reflected and ideas settled around me, I found my inner voice inspired to speak up and discuss the points on offer. While it occasionally gives your mind a jolly good shake, ’Rules for Mavericks’ is a perfectly placed spark of encouragement to explore your creative side. ~ Liz Robinson
'Amelia Freer has taught me so much about food...[you] have to fuel your body correctly' Victoria Beckham In her most comprehensive book yet, the UK's leading nutritional therapist and bestselling author, Amelia Freer, shares the secrets of her exclusive practice that includes Victoria Beckham and Sam Smith as clients. With her engaging and encouraging commentary, including client case studies and scientifically researched guidance, Nourish & Glow: The 10 Day Plan showcases Amelia's unrivalled easy-to-follow 10 day meal plan and promises to fundamentally transform the way you shop for food, cook and eat: now and forever. Amelia recognises that we are all unique and there is no 'one-size-fits all' approach to food. She will empower you to challenge any negative stories or attitudes you might have towards food and transform them into a positive lifelong love affair with eating well. The exclusive 10 day plan included in this book is a version of the plan Amelia gives to her clients, which has been developed and refined over her decade of work as a nutritional therapist. It is NOT about deprivation. It is a liberating, energising plan that will equip you with the building blocks needed to develop and implement a lifetime of balanced eating that is unique to you.
The Times Top 10 Bestseller THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, WITH OVER THREE MILLION COPIES SOLD AROUND THE WORLD 'Is it the world that's busy, or my mind?' The world moves fast, but that doesn't mean we have to. In this timely guide to mindfulness, Haemin Sunim, a Buddhist monk born in Korea and educated in the United States, offers advice on everything from handling setbacks to dealing with rest and relationships, in a beautiful book combining his teachings with calming full-colour illustrations. Haemin Sunim's simple messages - which he first wrote when he responded to requests for advice on social media - speak directly to the anxieties that have become part of modern life and remind us of the strength and joy that come from slowing down. Hugely popular in Korea, Haemin Sunim is a Zen meditation teacher whose teachings transcend religions and borders and resonate with people of all ages. With insight and compassion drawn from a life full of change, the 'mega-monk' succeeds at encouraging all of us to notice that when you slow down, the world slows down with you.
Shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards 2017, Costa Biography Award February 2017 Non-Fiction Book of the Month. Heart surgery is by its very nature a high-risk business and as Professor Stephen Westaby says ‘the grim reaper sits on your shoulder’, but when it is successful it is transformative, to say the least. With his 11,000 heart operations behind him Professor Stephen Westaby has been at the forefront of the advances in heart surgery for the last 35 years. Through his boundary-pushing, ethics-bending sometimes maverick approach he has helped make highly radical techniques, with a pretty poor chance of success, mainstream treatments for once fatal conditions.Fragile Lives is a candid and affecting biography, taking the reader to the heart of the operating theatre and into the lives of the patients whose courage help forge a path to safer and more effective heart surgery for us all. The Costa Judges say: ‘A powerful, engaging and passionate memoir from a surgical pioneer.’
This book is a way to release what's going on inside your head and to keep heading towards the good stuff. The simple stuff. The stuff that's going to really hit up that happiness on a deep and nourishing level. Whether you dip into these pages every now and then when you feel you need it, or use it daily as a positive exercise, I hope it brings you much relief, joy and calm. Amen to the pen. - Fearne Cotton For many of us, life can feel like it's moving too fast with pressure bearing down on us from all sides - whether that's from school or work, family or social media. As a result, we find ourselves frazzled, lost and - too often - feeling blue. It's a subject close to Fearne's heart. Drawing on her own experiences and including expert advice, HAPPY offers practical ways of finding joy each and every day. Happiness isn't a mountain to climb, it's just one foot in front of the other on the path of life, and here you'll find little steps that will help make the differences that count. With workbook elements to help you start and end the day well; get in touch with your creative side; and find peace through written exercises, simple practical ideas and visualisations, these are daily tricks and reminders to help you unlock that inner happiness.
We all need a little direction sometimes and this section is crammed full of great ideas for ways of improving your outlook, in all aspects of your wellbeing. Help from the shelf. From tips for good nutrition and taking care of your body (Optimism: Reflections on a Life of Action by Bob Brown) to coping with all the emotional situations in life, relationships, bereavements, stress, depression (Mind Whispering: A New Map to Freedom from Self-defeating Emotional Habits by Tara Bennett-Goleman). Discover the potential you have for being the ‘you’ you’ve always wanted to be or the ‘you’ you had no idea was in there.
Take a look at our monthly recommendations to find exactly what you’re looking for. Bear in mind though (and even ‘body and spirit’ too …), that just ‘reading’ them may not be enough. There’ll be homework!