In Partnership with Book of the Month
Whether your 2023 resolution was to read five books or a hundred, we at Frenshe HQ like to say that any progress is good progress. We’re constantly recommending books to our readers—and even had a book club!—because nothing beats diving into a good read, especially if you have a candle lit in the background. With the help of our friends at Book of the Month, our Frenshe team rounded up our favorite wellness books of all time. You can find all of these titles over at Book of the Month and you can use our code FRENSHE to get your first book for $9.99!
Let us know what you’re reading over at our Instagram.
Ashley Tisdale, Founder of Frenshe
As I’ve talked about on Frenshe, one of the ways I take care of myself is by going to therapy. I’ve been able to work through so much of my anxiety in therapy and I recommend it to anyone who is going through a hard time, or maybe just needs someone to talk to. One of our goals at Frenshe is to destigmatize mental health, so it’s important to our community to really stress the importance of seeking out therapy!
I loved Maybe You Should Talk to Someone because it’s from the perspective of a therapist. I learned so much reading it. It’s touching and funny and honest. If you’re ever wondering what your therapist might be thinking, I really recommend giving this a read!
Sara Li, Editorial Director:
I’ve been wanting to read My Body by EmRata since New York Magazine published her essay, Buying Myself Back. It hits that sweet spot of cultural analysis and personal writing—Em, a woman known for her body through her modeling endeavors, and who really has ownership to it when it’s been sold, edited, and commodified? There’s some beautiful passages about how she views her own body and the ways she’s denied it to have some semblance of control.
Regardless of how familiar you are with her other book, I think she’s penned a really touching essay collection on how the female body is seen. I found myself reflecting on my own relationship with my body and even wrote about it in-depth for my Substack. It’s an easy read and I’m really excited to see more of her writing in the future.
Annie Tomlin, Editor-At-Large
I devoured Jia Tolentino’s essay collection immediately upon its release, but I keep returning to her smart, incisive, funny observations on our weird and ever-shifting digital age. Many of her essays indirectly explore the ways in which we perform versions of ourselves—whether that’s Tolentino writing about her time on a reality show or about the way social media reshapes our sense of self. If you’ve ever looked around (or scrolled around) and thought that we’re living in a seriously absurd situation, you need to read this book.
Sam Fazz, Creative Director:
My boyfriend recommended Crying in H-Mart because he’s a big reader, but I had heard about this book from pretty much everyone I’ve ever met. Ten pages in and I understood immediately why everyone loved it—and was devastated by it. It’s one of the best books that I’ve read in the last few years; it was so personal and intimate, but at the same time, I think it mirrors how so many of us feel about our mother. Definitely read it with a kleenex box in hand (and maybe with some Korean BBQ), but one of my favorites for sure.
Camila Rivera, Astrologist
I first became aware of Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole when I listened to an episode of Brene Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast with Susan Cain as the guest. I had already decided I was going to read the book about ten minutes into the podcast when Cain said something to the effect of her understanding–gained throughout the span of time spent researching and writing this novel–that the nature of bittersweetness can be surmised as an after effect of the human experience; that, essentially, “we are creatures who are born to transform pain into beauty.”
The softness of Cain’s perspective, in direct contrast to the popular ‘rise and grind’ narrative, is exactly the medicine we need in a post-pandemic world which virtually left no one untouched by grief or loss. Bittersweet is just that: a bittersweet reminder that deep moments of sorrow are just as necessary to our personal development as searing moments of joy.