Are you looking to improve yourself in the new year? I know I'm not! I can't get over the nagging suspicion that anyone offering me helpful advice is mostly after my money, my pride and my dignity. I love any book that will tell me that all those financial advisers, self-help gurus and pesky psychiatrists are only out to get me in the end.
Bright-Sided, by celebrated author Barbara Ehrenreich, gleefully attacks the notion that happiness consists of a relentlessly positive attitude. Between cancer support groups that kick out their terminal cases and companies that buy self-help books for laid-off employees, you'll never think of happiness the same way again.
Helaine Olen takes a similar approach in Pound Foolish, turning her attention to the personal finance industry and all its dubious claims about what it takes to be wealthy and secure. It turns out that financial advisers aren't magic, and maybe gigantic lending institutions aren't the best places to go to learn about financial literacy.
The skepticism goes all the way to esteemed medical bodies. The Book of Woe follows the creation of the DSM-V, the American Psychiatric Association's latest mental illness directory. Rather than a screed against psychiatry, the book is instead a careful retelling of the internal politics involved in figuring out what's wrong with our minds.
These books might not make me a better person, but they certainly make me feel better. Reading them makes it a joy to be miserable, broke and just a little bit crazy.
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