Your survival guide to the Christmas chaos: the best books to feed your mind, body and
THE LET THEM THEORY by Mel Robbins (Hay House £22.99, 336pp)
So persuasive is the life-changing, stress-relieving, two-word message of Robbins’s bestselling book that she is now deluged with photographs of her fans’ tattoos – the words ‘Let Them’ inked onto different bits of their bodies.
Her gist is simple but powerful: if you allow yourself to be bothered by day-to-day irritations – long queues, slow drivers, empty milk cartons returned to the fridge – you change nothing while simply depleting your own energy.
If, on the other hand, you take a deep breath and consciously allow others to take their time, hold you up, slow you down, you will feel a calm come over you while retaining your strength to use in other, more useful ways.
So say those magic words: let them. And watch your stress reduce, your power increase, your relationships improve and, with a bit of luck, your teenager learn to dispose of the empty milk carton.
JOYSPAN: A SHORT GUIDE TO ENJOYING YOUR LONG LIFE by Dr Kerry Burnight (Aster £13.95, 256pp)
As a geriatrician, Dr Burnight has a ‘front-row seat to observe how people navigate old age’, and she’s spotted we all hold one of two mindsets: ageing as decline or ageing as continued growth.
The second group – by embracing what she calls Joyspan – experience significantly better health (healthspan) and longer life (lifespan).
Persuasively, she shows with studies and statistics how continuing to adapt, grow, connect and share can extend your life – and the sheer fun of it – by many years: ‘A long life, even a life in good health, doesn’t mean much if you’re not enjoying it.’
One of my books of the year, it works for simply everybody. As Burnight points out: ‘We’re all ageing. Whether you’re 103 or 23, the best time to invest in your joyspan is right now.’ In other words, every adult’s gift pile should contain a copy.
Angels are With You Now is available now from the Mail Bookshop
ANGELS ARE WITH YOU NOW by Kyle Gray (Hay House £12.99, 240pp)
When he was four, Gray woke to find his beloved grandmother sitting on the end of his bed. He later learned she had died hours before, and so began a life of seeing spirits and angels, and passing on messages from departed loved ones.
Now one of the world’s foremost angel experts, he tells us how we can all see these celestial guardians and feel their benefits by simply inviting them in.
Look for signs, too – feathers, clouds, the number 444 – which are all indications your angel is with you.
But don’t expect to see wings and flying – angels take all forms, says Gray, and can pop up anywhere.
One appeared to him at a very uncelestial family barbecue as a huge column of light with big black eyes. Or it could be the man sitting next to you on the bus. Best of all, Gray once even saw an angel boogy on a dance floor.
THE GIFT OF TEENAGERS by Rachel Kelly (Short Books £16.99, 416pp)
MENTAL health advocate and author Kelly has five children, which means she’s spent 15 continuous years living with teenagers. It’s been, she says, the hardest thing she’s ever done – but also the best.
With all that experience behind her, she’s written a comprehensive guide to parenting teens in a world fraught with the perils of social media, eating disorders, post-Covid anxiety, mobile phones, drugs, cyber-bullying, blended families and so much more.
Urging parents to ‘connect more, worry less’, there’s a useful chapter on the glitches in parents’ brains (yes, we’re not perfect either), dating back to our defensive reactions when sabre-toothed tigers threatened our offspring.
Understand your glitches, she says, and you’ll know why you react the way you do, and then be able to temper it.
For her children she has ‘attempted to be the bamboo cane to their clambering sweet pea’, and – now they’re all grown up – their connections with her are all the stronger for it. Invaluable, and surprisingly touching.
Making the Afterlife Connection is available now from the Mail Bookshop
MAKING THE AFTERLIFE CONNECTION by Suzanne Giesemann (Hay House £14.99, 272pp)
After a stellar career in the US navy, Giesemann was a tough, no-nonsense cynic – until her much adored stepdaughter, Susan, was killed by a bolt of lightning.
Grieving and desperate to communicate with her, Giesemann began to learn about mediums and soon found she made a rather good one herself, successfully channelling people’s dead relatives sending messages to their loved ones.
Giesemann learned to conjure up her stepdaughter for conversations, and acquired a spirit guide, a man with a strong Russian accent called Boris, who was happy to answer questions about the Afterlife (he tells us, satisfyingly, that vile murdering despots are ostracised and made to feel the very pain they’ve inflicted on others).
She was also contacted by a group of poets who would dictate daily rhyming poems with a whiff of the Hallmark card about them.
If that doesn’t put you off, this often very moving book by the sensible-sounding Giesemann is even peppered with lessons in do-it-yourself mediumship.
THE SOUL MIDWIVES’ HANDBOOK by Felicity Warner (Hay House £14.99, 304pp)
There are as many versions of a good death as there are people on the planet, says Warner, who founded the growing Soul Midwives’ movement to ease the final moments of the dying in whichever way meets their unique needs and wishes.
Blending ancient traditions with contemporary end-of-life care, she and her fellow midwives increasingly work alongside conventional clinicians, palliative care teams and hospice nurses to instil calm, love and acceptance at what would otherwise be a time of turbulence and fear.
Even if the crystals and auras are not your thing, this practical and sensitive guide will give you the tools – for example, what to say to the dying, how to calm their fear, what they might want in their end-of-life plan – to help you help your loved one die at peace.
How to Have a Magnificent Midlife Crisis is available now from the Mail Bookshop
HOW TO HAVE A MAGNIFICENT MIDLIFE CRISIS by Kate Muir (Gallery Books £16.99, 416pp)
the average life expectancy for British women is predicted to be 85 by 2030 and, says health campaigner Muir, those in particularly good health could live to 100.
So it’s high time we scrap the path of our parents’ generation – retirement, golf, frailty, death in our 70s – and reframe our life stages accordingly, with joy and rebellion.
In this deeply practical, entertaining and – yes – exhilarating guide to getting the best out of mid and late-life, she’s good on lengthening your Sexspan, closing the Orgasm Gap (95 per cent of men achieve in that department, while just 65 per cent of women do), dodging dementia, the wonders of testosterone, the joys of wild swimming (‘start slowly, swear copiously’), avoiding the Midlife Muffin-top and how to have a decent divorce.
‘I want you to navigate this time of change with joy,’ Muir insists, adding: ‘I want you to throw crockery with purpose.’