9 Best Self-Help Books That Will Actually Help You 2021

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Designed by Anna Jay.

Welcome to Hot Book Summer. From books about queer joy to snappy page turners you can read in a weekend, true crime books without the violence against women to Unbothered's picks of the best books written by Black women now, R29 has got your summer reading list sorted.

The world of self-help books can feel so inviting: it will change your life! Solve your work situation! Help you identify that gut problem you've been ignoring! And all within a couple of hundred pages.

However, the books we'd traditionally describe as 'self-help' can also feel...patronising. If you're not careful, you can end up reading advice so generalised that you feel belittled and spoken down to. Which is how you end up dropping the book off at your local charity shop without even hitting the 50 page mark.

Luckily for you, though, there are many brilliant books that can help you understand and better yourself without patronising, overgeneralising or ignoring the many different ways we live our lives. The following books are not 'self-help' in the traditional sense but will help to educate, enlighten and guide you through the many struggles facing us in 2021.

Whether you're looking for help with finance, understanding your body or how to make your clothes last longer, there's something here for you.

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