self-help for cynics

Two new releases are dishing out tough love

In need of a bit of tough love? These are the books to do it.

Anyone can write a self-help book, but not everyone who you wish would, does. Until now! You’re Not That Great (But Neither Is Anyone

Else) ($29.99, Hachette) is the stocking stuffer for those who need to be taken down a peg, and it’s written by – wait for it – an executive producer of The Bachelor US. That’s right, the show that manipulates our warped true-love fantasies and manages to find 25 hot singles who “still haven’t given up on love” (even the 23-year-olds!). Elan Gale, the author, may be great at his job, but he writes a pretty mean self-help book, too. Literally.

“Positivity isn’t the cure. It’s the disease,” he writes. Gale posits that we’ve all been raised on a diet of positivity – from compliments to our parents’ unwavering support. While many of us would cite social media as the reason we’re all so desperate for “likes”, this complex has been fostered within us since birth, he says. Accept that negative emotions have their place in your psyche, and harness them as

motivational tools instead. Good for haters and glass-half-fullers alike.

Anti-guru Sarah Knight (who introduced us to The Life-changing Magic Of Not Giving A F**k) has a new book out, too. It’s called – deep breath – You Do You: How To Be Who You Are And Use What You've Got To

Get What You Want ($29.99, Quercus). Like Gale, Knight encourages leaning into your undesirable traits – be difficult! Don’t be so nice all the time! Flipping the so-called “social contract” stipulations we all live by on their heads, she shares her experiences and emboldens you to stick to your guns and tell anyone who suggests otherwise to... well, you’re a cynic, you know what.