Susan Chambers woke up feeling like she had been hit by a bus. Mostly because she had been hit by a bus. And Susan Chambers wasn’t so much waking up, as she was arriving in The After Death, the place between one life and the next. After forty-two years as a human, a freshly dead Susan must tackle some of the biggest questions in life, death and everything that comes after. Why are mosquitoes the way they are? What lessons can a soul learn from a single life? Does it really matter if you were a good person? Is there such a thing as a life that doesn’t matter at all?

KC Davis, the renowned therapist who specializes in difficult relationships, asks and answers these questions. Just as she helps you design a functional home in How to Keep House While Drowning, here she applies the same bold but gentle approach to relationships so that they function, too. She helps you navigate decisions in every type of relationship, whether romantic or platonic. Recognizing that it isn’t always realistic to cut loose the people who rattle you, she explores how to protect yourself in those situations.

When a traumatic event occurs, our body triggers its “fight or flight” response. In many scenarios, the emotional reactions of this response get trapped, disrupting the feedback loop between our mind and body, leading to an imbalance in our nervous system function. Over time this can cause chronic stress, pain, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. This, alongside regular triggers in our everyday life, will manifest into a disconnection between our mind and body and create a constant feeling of dissociation from our emotions, with minimal control over how we feel.

There are lots of experts out there who will tell you they have the magic recipe to raising perfect humans. Gwenna Laithland is not one of them. She’s one of us. Frustrated, overwhelmed, and exhausted. Her relatable representation of parenthood validates our experiences. In Momma Cusses, Gwenna uses her signature style of snark and sarcasm to explain her interpretation of responsive parenting vs. reactive parenting and outline the steps she takes to raise her kids. Whether you are a parent or someone who has had a parent, we all need to learn how to handle our emotional spirals responsively.

Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable or to dare greatly. Based on 12 years of pioneering research, Dr. Brené Brown dispels the cultural myth that vulnerability is weakness and argues that it is, in truth, our most accurate measure of courage. Brown explains how vulnerability is both the core of difficult emotions like fear, grief, and disappointment, and the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, empathy, innovation, and creativity.