Olivera, Lisa. Already Enough: A Path to Self-Acceptance. S. & S. Jan. 2022. 256p. ISBN 9781982138929. $26. SELF-HELP

Growing up, Olivera knew that she had been adopted, but for many years she didn’t realize the extent of her abandonment; her mother left her in California’s Muir Woods when she was just a few hours old. What’s wrong with me? Why was I not enough? These are the questions one might asked when faced with such facts, but after working with a therapist Olivera came to realize that she had to tell herself a different—and better—story. Here she explains how important our personal stories are to us and how we can reframe them to our benefit. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Sullivan, Meghan & Paul Blaschko. The Good Life Method: Reasoning Through the Big Questions of Happiness, Faith, and Meaning. Penguin Pr. Jan. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9781984880307. $28. Downloadable. PHILOSOPHY/ETHICS

Sure, philosophy asks pointed questions about the nature of being and the breadth and limits of human knowledge. But it also investigates how to live meaningfully. Notre Dame philosophy professors Sullivan and Blaschko contribute to a veritable stream of recent titles showing how philosophy can deepen our daily lives, showing us how to ask the questions that will help us build a good life plan and take more meaningful control of our lives. Love, truth, money, suffering, death, and religion—these are the issues they touch on with reference to works by Aristotle, Iris Murdoch, W.E.B. Du Bois, and more.