Which Books to Read to Improve Your Life in 2026
We love reading and applying the things we learn that we know will work in our lives.
Over the years, we have shared reading lists e.g. 2025 has 12 books to improve your health, wealth and life.
For 2026, all the books we have chosen so far are from female authors.
This is because we are increasingly frustrated with many books written by men who had a wife handling everything for them or who were single.
Meaning, their advice is good for some, it isn’t right for us since we have kids, careers and other life expectations.
As such, we sought out books on topics we enjoy or want to learn more about and that were written by women.
You will also notice this list contains books focused on self-improvement, confidence, psychology and human behaviour. This is because healing and knowing ourselves impact our finances.
We started with those topics then included finance books towards the end of the list.
Here is the list and further down we explain why we chose each one
The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience by Dr Aditi Nerurkar
Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure le Cunff Women Don’t Owe You Pretty: The Record-Breaking Best-Selling Book Every Woman Needs and Women Living Deliciously: THE LIFE-CHANGING BOOK EVERY WOMAN DESERVES both by Florence Given
How to be Enough: Seven life-changing steps for self-critics, overthinkers and perfectionists by Ellen Hendriksen
Validation: The New Psychology of Influence by Caroline Fleck
Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve by Alison Fragale
How To Not Work Forever: Start Investing and Build a Life You Love by Natasha Etschmann and Ana Kresina
The Wardrobe Project: A Year of Buying Less and Liking Yourself More by Emma Edwards who also wrote Good With Money.
Know Your Worth: Heal your relationship with your money and your self by Victoria Vivente
The Money Reset: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life by Gemma Mitchell
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
The 5 Resets
The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress and More Resilience by Dr Aditi Nerurkar is first on our list due to the extreme amount of stress we have been living with in recent years.
We are resilient and have overcome a lot but try as we might, life throws so much at us we can quickly hit burn out.
Stress can be healthy, it is a normal human function and has a purpose but too many of us are living with chronic stress.
To bring stress back to healthy levels, Dr. Nerurkar offers her five science-backed mindset shifts for when life gets hard:
The First Reset: Get Clear on What Matters Most
The Second Reset: Find Quiet in a Noisy World
The Third Reset: Sync Your Brain and Your Body
The Fourth Reset: Come Up for Air
The Fifth Reset: Bring Your Best Self Forward
Dr. Nerurkar illuminates why our everyday attempts at being ‘resilient’ – like multitasking, sleeping less, and undergoing huge lifestyle overhauls – aren’t beneficial to our stressed brains.
Tiny Experiments
Our team has achieved some incredible things through being obsessed with our goals.
Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World by Anne-Laure le Cunff intrigues us.
Neuroscientist and entrepreneur Anne-Laure Le Cunff reveals that all you need is an experimental mindset to turn challenges into self-discovery and doubt into opportunity.
Drawing on the latest science and ancient philosophy, she replaces the old linear model of success with a circular model of growth in which goals are discovered, pursued, and adapted.
It seems to align with the 3 questions I ask myself to turn obstacles into opportunities but goes deeper.
Women Don’t Owe You Pretty
Women Don’t Owe You Pretty by Florence Given has been on our list for a while but we only had time now.
Through Florence’s story you will learn how to protect your energy and discover that you are the love of your own life. Instead of feeling the pressure to look a certain way or people please, you’ll learn how to live for yourself.
Warning: there is explicit content in this book.
Women Living Deliciously
Women Living Deliciously by Florence Given is a follow up to Women Don’t Owe You Pretty.
It will help you uncover your sense of awe and wonder that has been buried by the layers of shame and self-objectification that get piled on us by the patriarchy.
For too long we have internalised the belief that our bodies are things to be looked at – instead of lived in.
That it’s embarrassing to fully express ourselves.
As you can probably tell, we struggled with not doing things because we felt we weren’t pretty enough or thin enough or our teeth needed to be fixed etc.
Essentially, we held ourselves back because we felt we weren’t enough and needed whatever we did to be perfect.
How To Be Enough
We skipped past this when it was recommended to because it seemed too basic and that we should already know we are enough.
How to be Enough: Seven life-changing steps for self-critics, overthinkers and perfectionists by Ellen Hendriksen is a must-read for some.
Despite achievements and compliments recieved, or the confidence exuded, at times, we strongly feel we are failing at everything or are different from everyone.
This book is designed to move you from self-criticism to kindness, control to authenticity, procrastination to productivity, and comparison to contentment.
Each of the seven shifts will help you find self-acceptance, rewrite the Inner Rulebook, and most of all, cultivate the authentic human connections we’re all craving.
Validation
Validation skills are proven to impact five key areas of our life: enhancing our relationships, de-escalating conflict, increasing our ability to drive behaviour change, influencing growth in others, and developing a stronger connection to self.
By improving your validation skills, you will find people listen to you and understand you better thus improving your overall life and the outcomes you desire.
Validation: The New Psychology of Influence by Caroline Fleck is an interesting read to learn these skills or improve them.
Likeable Badass
How do you balance kindness and competence in the workplace? How can you get the success you deserve, earn credit for your accomplishments, and navigate complex office politics without antagonising your colleagues?
Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve by Alison Fragale teaches you how to balance it so you can be authentically you and be successful with science backed tips.
How Not To Work Forever
We already invest and know a lot about it but we included this book on our reading list so we can read it for you and provide our thoughts.
How To Not Work Forever: Start Investing and Build a Life You Love by Natasha Etschmann and Ana Kresina breaks down the info and tools you need to keep up with inflation and grow your wealth.
Both the authors have other books, podcasts and more that are worth looking into.
The Wardrobe Project
The Wardrobe Project: A Year of Buying Less and Liking Yourself More by Emma Edwards is something we have done at times.
It is interesting to see how often we buy something simply because we feel we need a sdifferent outfit for each wedding or are bored of our work attire etc.
Cait Flanders did similar in The Year Of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings , And Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy In A Store.
Know Your Worth
Know Your Worth: Heal your relationship with your money and your self by Victoria Vivente appears to be an easy to follow and funny finance book.
We have read many books about finance over the years and enjoy keeping up with new ones so we can share them with you.
The Money Reset
The Money Reset: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life by Gemma Mitchell looks to be a great book for anyone facing an obstacle.
When life throws you off balance with divorce, job loss, illness or another unexpected shake-up, your finances often feel the impact first.
In The Money Reset, financial advisor Gemma Mitchell helps you get back on track with a practical, step-by-step plan tailored to your new reality.
Whether you’re rebuilding over 12 days, 12 weeks or 12 months, you’ll discover simple but powerful strategies that lead to big change. It’s time for you to take control ― so you can thrive no matter what comes your way.
The Beauty Myth
This book was given to a young Kate Winslet by Emma Thompson to help her love her body instead of skipping meals and trying to be super thin like Hollywood demanded. It changed her life.
When we read that, we put The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf on our reading list.
It aligns with a few other books we have listed above.
Summary
As you can see, this list is for learning about yourself, increasing confidence, knowledge, being authentic and improving your finances as well as your life.
Let us know what you’re reading this year and why you chose it.
