Deep Psychological Reads That Stay With You
“The human mind will not be confined to any limits.”—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The human mind is a complex and beautiful thing. It’s no wonder entire disciplines from neuroscience to psychology and, of course, the humanities are devoted to plumbing its depths.
Our minds are where we spend most of our time. It’s where our thought-lives play out. Our minds are where our reasoning, emotions, identities, and so much more take shape.
If you’re a curious reader, like myself, then you love a thoughtful book, no matter the genre, that delves deep and asks larger-than-life questions about the human condition.
If you’re craving engaging and fascinating psychological reads, have we got a list for you!
Best Psychological Fiction:
My Year of Rest and Relaxation
by Ottessa Moshfegh
She's young, thin, pretty, a recent Columbia graduate, works an easy job at a hip art gallery, lives in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan paid for, like the rest of her needs, by her inheritance. Our narrator should be happy, shouldn't she? But there is a dark and vacuous hole in her heart…
A shocking, hilarious and strangely tender novel about a young woman's experiment in narcotic hibernation, aided and abetted by one of the worst psychiatrists in the annals of literature.
Moshfegh depicts depression with resounding accuracy: the lethargy, monotony, the hopelessness; yet she does so with an irresistible dark humor. Moshfegh didn’t shy away from her characters’ shadow sides, which highlighted them as deeply human rather than deplorable.
Tom Lake
by Ann Patchett
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK
In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake.
As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
Full of heart and beautiful symbolism, this is a coming-of-age story in which Lara thoughtfully looks back over her life. Patchett effortlessly captures the wistful yet passionate nature of the young mind in this masterpiece.
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue
by V E Schwab
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, USA TODAY BESTSELLER , NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER, THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
A Life No One Will Remember. A Story You Will Never Forget.
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.
Thus begins a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world.
In poetic prose, Schwab illustrates the effects of solitude and what the mind experiences when there’s an excess of it.
“…perfectly suspended between darkness and light, myth and reality…”—Hugo Award winner Alix E. Harrow, author of The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
The Last Thing He Told Me
by Laura Dave
A Goodreads Top 60 Book of the Last 5 Years
The #1 New York Times-bestselling blockbuster and Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick that’s now an Apple TV+ limited series starring Jennifer Garner.
Before Owen Michaels disappears, he smuggles a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers—Owen’s 16-year-old daughter, Bailey.
This perfectly-paced, mind-bender of a novel offers a refreshing twist of the psychological thriller: despite a broken world full of dark circumstances, humanity is intrinsically good.
Best Psychological Nonfiction:
Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know
by Adam Grant
#1 New York Times Bestseller
Bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Originals examines the critical art of rethinking. Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.
Organizational psychologist Grant is an expert on opening other people's minds. As one of Wharton's top-rated professors, he makes it one of his guiding principles to argue like he's right but listen like he's wrong.
With bold ideas and rigorous evidence, he investigates how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, bring nuance to charged conversations, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners.
Morbidly Curious: A Scientist Explains Why We Can't Look Away
by Coltan Scrivner
The leading expert on the science behind morbid curiosity explains our spooky, gory, and macabre fascinations.
From our obsession with true crime to our inability to turn away from a car crash, Scrivner reveals the psychological forces that compel us to explore our darkest fears.
“A fascinating examination of a feature of human nature that all of us have, most of us deplore (at least in others), and few of us understand.”—Steven Pinker, New York Times-bestselling author of Enlightenment Now.
Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change
by Olga Khazan
Is it really possible to change your entire personality in a year? An award-winning journalist experiments with her own personality to find out--and reveals the science behind lasting change.
Khazan embarks on an experiment to see whether it's possible to go from dwelling in dread to “radiating joy.” For one year, Khazan reluctantly said yes to a bucket list of new experiences—from meditation to improv to sailing—that forced her to at least act happy.
With a skeptic's eye, Khazan brings readers on her journey through the science of personality, presenting evidence-backed techniques to help you change your mind for the better.
Sharply witty and deeply fascinating, this book offers a probing inquiry into what it means to live a fulfilling life, and how you can keep diving into change, no matter how uncomfortable it feels.
Ordinary Magic: The Science of How We Can Achieve Big Change with Small Acts
by Gregory M Walton
It's easy to think problems are out of our control. But in fact, we have vast opportunities for change. Ordinary Magic puts the tools for change at your fingertips.
Discover simple psychological shifts that build trust, belonging, and confidence from the co-director of the Dweck-Walton Lab at Stanford University.
Through vivid storytelling and insightful analysis of fascinating research—both his own and others’—Dr. Walton pulls back the curtain to reveal the magic at work: with our children, in our relationships, in school, and in our policy.
This book is an invitation to a quiet and realistic revolution. Big change starts with small thoughts and acts of which everyone is capable.
“A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.”—George R.R. Martin
In the end, what binds these books together is their fearless exploration of what it means to be human. Whether through fiction that mirrors our inner turmoil or nonfiction that demystifies the mind itself, each title offers a window into the psychology of thought, emotion, and identity.
So, the next time you reach for a book, consider one that challenges your perception and lingers in your mind long after the last page — because the most powerful stories are the ones that make us think, feel, and see ourselves anew.
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