2023 Nautilus Book Award Winners
Nautilus Book Awards recognizes books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & sustainability, high-level wellness, and positive social change & social justice. You can find a full list of this year’s nominees here. Congratulations to all 2023 nominees and winners!
Gold
Winner: Gold Nautilus Book Award, Death & Dying/Grief & Loss
Expanding on Pauline Boss’s seminal work on ambiguous loss, this book explores the complications and deviations from traditional grief when mourning a loss, but not a death—and offers real solutions for healing.
Most people will experience this type of traumatic event over the course of their lifetime, yet the complications of these situations often leave grievers feeling alienated or ashamed. Soulbroken is a guidebook that recognizes this often-misunderstood grief, validates the unique challenges posed by its ambiguity, and champions tools for healing. In it, Stephanie Sarazin presents the ambiguous grief process, offering insights to help readers better understand the nuances of their grief experience when a loved one is not lost to death. With intimate stories of others' path to recovery using Sarazin's advice, this book will help anyone ready to find a way through their own grief, regardless of where they are on their journey.
You’ve got this!
Good enough is a cookbook, but it’s as much about the healing process of cooking as it is about delicious recipes. It’s about acknowledging the fears and anxieties many of us have when we get in the kitchen, then learning to let them go in the sensory experience of working with food. It’s about slowing down, honoring the beautiful act of feeding yourself and your loved ones, and releasing the worries about whether what you’ve made is good enough. It is.
A generous mix of essays, stories, and nearly 100 dazzling recipes, Good Enough is a deeply personal cookbook. It’s subject is more than Smoky Honey Shrimp Tacos with Spicy Fennel Slaw or Sticky Toffee Cookies; ultimately it’s about learning to love and accept yourself, in and out of the kitchen.
A trusted grief expert shares what Kirkus Reviews praises as “calm, lucid prose… [a] humanizing exploration of coping with the life-changing tides of loss.”
In Grief is Love, author Marisa Renee Lee reveals that healing does not mean moving on after losing a loved one—healing means learning to acknowledge and create space for your grief. It is about learning to love the one you lost with the same depth, passion, joy, and commitment you did when they were alive, perhaps even more. She guides you through the pain of grief—whether you’ve lost the person recently or long ago—and shows you what it looks like to honor your loss on your unique terms, and debunks the idea of a grief stages or timelines. Grief is Love is about making space for the transformation that a significant loss requires.
***INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER***
Disrupt and push back against capitalism and white supremacy. In this book, Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, encourages us to connect to the liberating power of rest, daydreaming, and naps as a foundation for healing and justice.What would it be like to live in a well-rested world? Far too many of us have claimed productivity as the cornerstone of success. Brainwashed by capitalism, we subject our bodies and minds to work at an unrealistic, damaging, and machine‑level pace –– feeding into the same engine that enslaved millions into brutal labor for its own relentless benefit.
In Rest Is Resistance, Tricia Hersey, aka the Nap Bishop, casts an illuminating light on our troubled relationship with rest and how to imagine and dream our way to a future where rest is exalted. Our worth does not reside in how much we produce, especially not for a system that exploits and dehumanizes us. Rest, in its simplest form, becomes an act of resistance and a reclaiming of power because it asserts our most basic humanity. We are enough. The systems cannot have us.
Rest Is Resistance is rooted in spiritual energy and centered in Black liberation, womanism, somatics, and Afrofuturism. With captivating storytelling and practical advice, all delivered in Hersey’s lyrical voice and informed by her deep experience in theology, activism, and performance art, Rest Is Resistance is a call to action, a battle cry, a field guide, and a manifesto for all of us who are sleep deprived, searching for justice, and longing to be liberated from the oppressive grip of Grind Culture.
Do you know that feeling of “not belonging” when you have so much to say at a work meeting? Of being a “yes-girl” but getting passed up for promotions?
For women of color and children of immigrants, who are the “the other” at work, there’s a different threshold of belonging that creates a false feeling of inadequacy. It can lead to being overwhelmed, overworked, and overlooked. The Other shatters the unspoken expectations for you to stay in your lane and gives you the tools to build unshakable confidence and a career that excels–on your own terms.
In The Other, Daniela shares her journey and those of other women to help you recognize your power in the workplace outside of the white gaze. She drives you to reshape the way you think about career advancement without losing your sense of identity and helps you see how to use your differences as an advantage. Smart, revealing, and loaded with practical steps,The Other is a framework for how to effectively advocate for yourself, become your biggest believer, claim the spaces in your career that are rightfully yours.
Did you know that every forty seconds, someone in the US suffers a heart attack or stroke, and every sixty-five seconds someone develops dementia? The culprit is cardiovascular disease—and rates are soaring in younger, seemingly healthy people. Busting every myth we have about cardiovascular health, including that women are less likely to suffer from heart attacks and strokes, world-renowned cardiovascular specialists Bradley Bale, MD, and Amy Doneen, DNP, have pioneered a lifesaving method to prevent these devastating events—and reverse the disease that causes them.
The BaleDoneen Method transcends the medical silos of cardiology, neurology, endocrinology, and others with a holistic approach designed to protect and optimize the health of the heart, brain, and other vital organs, as well as the blood vessels that supply them. With laser-sharp focus, Bale and Doneen provide the latest research on how your oral health is contributing to the decline of your heart. Captivating and revolutionary, Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain is a unique and comprehensive program to prevent chronic diseases and memory loss in people of all ages regardless of their body type, medical history, or genes. Offering a roadmap to lifelong arterial wellness, it includes:
- Precision medical methods to prevent diseases of aging
- The best and worst supplements and foods for your heart
- Ten lifestyle moves that lower dementia risk by 35 percent
- Information about genes that raise cardiovascular risk as much as smoking
- The top ten heart attack prevention tips for women
Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain will equip you with the knowledge you need to approach your healthcare as an empowered and informed patient.
Zibby Owens 2022 Book of the Year
A galvanizing, stirring memoir about growing up homeless and in foster care and rising to become a leading advocate for child welfare, recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. “You will fall in love with David Ambroz, his beautifully-told, gut-wrenching story, and his great big heart.” (Jeanette Walls, author of The Glass Castle)
“It's impossible to read A Place Called Home and not want to redouble your efforts to fight the systems of poverty that have plagued America for far too long. In this book, David shares his deeply personal story and issues a rousing call to make this a more humane and compassionate nation.”—HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
There are millions of homeless children in America today and in A Place Called Home, award-winning child welfare advocate David Ambroz writes about growing up homeless in New York for eleven years and his subsequent years in foster care, offering a window into what so many kids living in poverty experience every day.
When David and his siblings should be in elementary school, they are instead walking the streets seeking shelter while their mother is battling mental illness. They rest in train stations, 24-hour diners, anywhere that’s warm and dry; they bathe in public restrooms and steal food to quell their hunger. When David is placed in foster care, at first it feels like salvation but soon proves to be just as unsafe. He’s moved from home to home and, in all but one placement, he’s abused. His burgeoning homosexuality makes him an easy target for other’s cruelty.
David finds hope and opportunities in libraries, schools, and the occasional kind-hearted adult; he harnesses an inner grit to escape the all-too-familiar outcome for a kid like him. Through hard work and unwavering resolve, he is able to get a scholarship to Vassar College, his first significant step out of poverty. He later graduates from UCLA Law with a vision of using his degree to change the laws that affect children in poverty.
Told with lyricism and sparkling with warmth, A Place Called Home depicts childhood poverty and homelessness as it is experienced by so many young people who have been systematically overlooked and unprotected. It’s at once a gripping personal account of deprivation—how one boy survived it, and ultimately thrived—and a resounding call for readers to move from empathy to action.
A Movement in Words and Images
Award-winning photographer Devin Allen has devoted the last six years to documenting the protests of the Black Lives Matter movement, from its early days in Baltimore, Maryland, up to the present day. The riveting images in No Justice, No Peace provide a lens on the resistance that has empowered Black lives generation after generation. Allen’s signature black-and-white photos bear witness to the profound history of African Americans and allies in the fight for social justice and portray the collective action over decades in stunning, timeless portraits.
Allen’s remarkable photos of today’s Black Lives Matter protests, which have been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and twice on the cover of Time magazine, were inspired by Gordon Parks of the Civil Rights Movement, and create a vision of the past and future of Black activism and leadership in America. With contributions from twenty-six bestselling and influential writers and activists of today such as Clint Smith, DeRay Mckesson, D. Watkins, Jacqueline Woodson, Emmanuel Acho, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and more, alongside the words of past writers and activists such as Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, and John Lewis, No Justice, No Peace is a reminder of the moral responsibility of Americans to break unjust laws and take direct action.
In words and pictures, No Justice, No Peace honors the connection between activism today and that of the past. If indeed hindsight is 20/20, this artistic look back is a lens on history that enlarges our understanding of the lasting predicament of racism in the United States of America. At once deeply intimate and profoundly uplifting, No Justice, No Peace is a visual tribute to Black resistance and a stern missive on the tough, but necessary, road that lies ahead.
Nautilus Book Awards' Better Books for a Better World | Axiom Business Book Award Winner
GrubHub founder Mike Evans reveals the inside story of how he grew a multibillion-dollar behemoth that changed the way we eat.
GrubHub’s journey from Mike’s bedroom to Wall Street doesn’t fit into how business schools teach entrepreneurship. In Hangry, he details step-by-step the grind of building an innovative business, with each chapter including sharp lessons for entrepreneurs and startups that Mike learned on the fly as he piloted GrubHub by the seat of his pants. Hangry reveals a decade of eighty-hour work weeks, detailed steps of how Mike garnered his first customers, his hunt for financing dollars, cliffhanger acquisitions, the near collapse of his marriage, a brutally difficult merger, and a pair of tumultuous quit/unquit moments, all to steer the company to become one of the most successful startups in the world. With a razor-sharp wit, Mike reveals hard-won truths about how startups succeed—and even harder-won truths about how startups fail.
Shocking everyone, at the pinnacle of startup success, Mike leaves it all behind, quitting the company he started to bike across the United States in search of balance. But eventually, the grand vistas of America bring the lessons of the past into focus, driving the realization that for entrepreneurs a hunger for success doesn’t end, and he starts another company, even more ambitious than the first.
A “ride-or-die chick” is a woman who holds down her family and community. She’s your girl that you can call up in the middle of the night to bail you out of jail, and you know she’ll show up and won’t ask any questions. Her ride-or-die trope becomes a problem when she does it indiscriminately. She does anything for her family, friends, and significant other, even at the cost of her own well-being. “No” is not in her vocabulary. Her self-worth is connected to how much labor she can provide for others. She goes above and beyond for everyone in every aspect of her life—work, family, church, even if it’s not reciprocated, and doesn’t require it to be because she’s a “strong Black woman” and everyone’s favorite ride-or-die chick. To her, love should be earned, and there’s no limit to what she’ll do for it.
In this book, author, adjunct professor of sociology, and former therapist Shanita Hubbard disrupts the ride-or-die complex and argues that this way of life has left Black women exhausted, overworked, overlooked, and feeling depleted. She suggests that Black women are susceptible to this mentality because it’s normalized in our culture. It rings loud in your favorite hip-hop songs, and it even shows up in the most important relationship you will ever have—the one with yourself.
Compassionate, candid, hard-hitting, and 100 percent unapologetic, Ride or Die melds Hubbard’s entertaining conversations with her Black girlfriends and her personal experiences as a redeemed ride-or-die chick and a former “captain of the build-a-brother team” to fervently dismantle cultural norms that require Black women to take care of everyone but themselves.
Ride or Die urges you to expel the myth that your self-worth is connected to how much labor you provide others and guides you toward healing. Using hip hop as a backdrop to explore norms that are harmful to Black women, Hubbard shows the ways you may be unknowingly perpetuating this harm within your relationships. This book is an urgent call for you to pull the plug on the ride-or-die chick.
Discover a "compelling" framework for setting and achieving your goals (Carol Dweck, author of Mindset), from a psychologist on the cutting edge of motivational science.
A great deal of ink has been spilled on the subject of motivating and influencing others, but what happens when the person you most want to influence is you? Setting and achieving goals for yourself—at work, at home, and in relationships—is harder than it seems. How do you know where to start? How do you carry on in the face of roadblocks and distractions? How do you decide which tasks and ambitions to prioritize when you’re faced with more responsibilities, needs, and desires than you can keep track of?In Get It Done, psychologist and behavioral scientist Ayelet Fishbach presents a new theoretical framework for self-motivated action, explaining how to:
- Identify the right goals
- Attack the “middle problem”
- Battle temptations
- Use the help of others around you
- And so much more…
SILVER
A timely, powerful story of survival set in the not-too-distant future that Margaret Renkl (Late Migrations) calls “a beautiful book…shot through with such tenderness and humanity, such love and courage and beauty and hope, that it feels almost like a prayer.”
With fires devastating much of America, Lark and his family first leave their home in Maryland for Maine. But as the country increasingly falls under the grip of religious nationalism, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe, not just from physical disasters but also persecution. The family secures a place on a crowded boat headed to Ireland, the last place on earth rumored to be accepting American refugees.
Upon arrival, it turns out that the safe harbor of Ireland no longer exists either—and Lark, the sole survivor of the trans-Atlantic voyage, must disappear into the countryside. As he runs for his life, Lark finds two equally lost and desperate souls: one of the last remaining dogs, who becomes his closest companion, and a fierce, mysterious woman in search of her lost son. Together they form a makeshift family and attempt to reach Glendalough, a place they believe will offer protection. But can any community provide the safety that they seek?
Lark Ascending is a moving and unforgettable story of friendship and bravery, and even more, a story of the ongoing fight to protect our personal freedoms and find our shared humanity, from a writer at the peak of his powers.
Overwhelmed by racial injustice? Outraged by the news? Find yourself asking, “What can I doooooo?” DO THE WORK!
Revelatory and thought-provoking, this highly illustrated, highly informative interactive workbook gives readers a unique, hands-on understanding of systemic racism—and how we can dismantle it.
Packed with activities, games, illustrations, comics, and eye-opening conversation, Do the Work! challenges readers to think critically and act effectively. Try the “Separate but Not Equal” crossword puzzle. Play “Bootstrapping, the Game” to understand the myth of meritocracy. Test your knowledge of racist laws by playing “Jim Crow or Jim Faux?”
Have hard conversations with your people (scripts and talking points included). Be open to new ideas and diversify your “feed” with a scavenger hunt. Team up with an accountability partner and find hundreds of ideas, resources, and opportunities to DO THE WORK!
Ready to get started?
Mom records her baby’s milestones, but what about her own? Where is the celebration of mom’s transformation?
Beginning with one-day-old mom, who may feel like she is learning a new language, Mom Milestones is a love letter to the myriad ways moms grow and adapt to motherhood. Here are significant firsts: First sleepless night. First walk with baby. First mom friend. Skills learned—how to soothe baby (sometimes); how to coax a preschooler into taking medicine. Mom’s likes (adapting pop songs to lullaby format; gathering intelligence from other moms) and dislikes (emptying the lunch box with mystery smells; requests for video games). There’s Bedtime: The Board Game; crafts mom enjoys (no glitter or glue, thanks!); and the ABCs of motherhood (E for ennui).
While there might not be a road map for motherhood, Mom Milestones tracks both the memorable and slightly forgettable guideposts along the way—sunrises, snack plates, cuddles, laughter, and astonishment—because, as the saying goes, the days are long, but the years are short.
An NPR Best Book of 2022
An incredible, deeply reported story of identical twins Isabella and Hà, born in Viêt Nam and raised on opposite sides of the world, each knowing little about the other’s existence until they were reunited as teenagers, against all odds.
“Stirring and unforgettable—a breathtaking adoption saga like no other.” —Robert Kolker
It was 1998 in Nha Trang, Việt Nam, and Liên struggled to care for her newborn twin girls. Hà was taken in by Liên’s sister, and she grew up in a rural village with her aunt, going to school and playing outside with the neighbors. They had sporadic electricity and frequent monsoons. Hà’s twin sister, Loan, was adopted by a wealthy, white American family who renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Việt Nam. Isabella and Olivia attended a predominantly white Catholic school, played soccer, and prepared for college.
But when Isabella’s adoptive mother learned of her biological twin back in Việt Nam, all of their lives changed forever. Award-winning journalist Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members. She brings the girls’ experiences to life on the page, told from their own perspectives, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life. Hayasaki contextualizes the sisters’ experiences with the fascinating and often sinister history of twin studies, intercountry and transracial adoption, and the nature-versus-nurture debate, as well as the latest scholarship and conversation surrounding adoption today, especially among adoptees.
For readers of All You Can Ever Know and American Baby, Somewhere Sisters is a richly textured, moving story of sisterhood and coming of age, told through the remarkable lives of young women who have redefined the meaning of family for themselves.
From the author of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, a rallying cry to get off the couch and out into the world.
WHY WE TRAVEL is filled with personal stories and anecdotes, quotes that inspire, and reasons to motivate–plus images so lush you can’t wait to be there. For years Patricia Schultz has been telling us where to travel, and we love listening. Now, in telling us why to travel, she reveals what makes her such a compelling guide and what makes travel such a richly rewarding experience. There’s the time she was on safari in Zambia yet found her most lasting memory in a classroom of five-year-olds. The comedy of mishaps that she and friends endured on a canal trip through southern France—and how it brought them together in an unexpected way. She quotes favorite authors and luminaries on the importance of travel and, in a series of memorable aphorisms, gets to the essence of why to travel. And gives us a few travel hacks, too. Travel is, as the writer Pico Iyer says, the thing that causes us to “stay up late, follow impulse, and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love.” Why We Travel is all about rekindling that feeling. Just book a ticket, pack a bag, and dive headlong into an adventure.
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION
FINALIST FOR THE NELLIE BY CHANTICLEER INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS FOR JOURNALISTIC NON-FICTION
A gripping investigation of the billion-dollar timber black market “and a fascinating examination of the deep and troubled relationship between people and forests” (Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts).
There's a strong chance that chair you are sitting on was made from stolen lumber. In Tree Thieves, Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree poachers, law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels, and indigenous communities along the way.
Old-growth trees are invaluable and irreplaceable for both humans and wildlife, and are the oldest living things on earth. But the morality of tree poaching is not as simple as we might think: stealing trees is a form of deeply rooted protest, and a side effect of environmental preservation and protection that doesn't include communities that have been uprooted or marginalized when park boundaries are drawn. As Bourgon discovers, failing to include working class and rural communities in the preservation of these awe-inducing ecosystems can lead to catastrophic results.
Featuring excellent investigative reporting, fascinating characters, logging history, political analysis, and cutting-edge tree science, Tree Thieves takes readers on a thrilling journey into the intrigue, crime, and incredible complexity sheltered under the forest canopy.
From the acclaimed author of Hurricane Season, an unforgettable story about what makes a family, for fans of Hazel’s Theory of Evolution and Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World.
Eleven-year-old Joey is angry. All the time. And she doesn’t understand why. She has two loving moms, a supportive older half brother, and, as a triplet, she’s never without company. Her life is good. But sometimes she loses her temper and lashes out, like the time she threw a soccer ball—hard—at a boy in gym class and bruised his collarbone. Or when jealousy made her push her (former) best friend (and crush), Layla, a little bit too roughly.
After a meltdown at Joey’s apartment building leads to her family’s eviction, Joey is desperate to figure out why she’s so mad. A new unit in science class makes her wonder if the reason is genetics. Does she lose control because of something she inherited from the donor her mothers chose?
The Science of Being Angry is a heartwarming story about what makes a family and what makes us who we are.
From the mammogram that would change her life through her diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, New York Times bestselling author Theresa Brown tells a poignant and powerful story about having breast cancer in the United States. Despite her training and years of experience as an oncology and hospice nurse, Brown finds it difficult to navigate the medical maze from the other side of the bed, especially because she knows that speaking up and being labeled a “difficult” patient could mean she’ll get worse care. Like the almost four million women in this country living with breast cancer, Brown has a treatable form of the disease, but in Healing she shows that, though our for-profit health care industry may “cure” us, it can leave many of us feeling alienated and uncared for. “People failed me when I was a patient and I failed patients when working as a nurse. I see that now,” she writes. As she did so brilliantly in her New York Times bestseller, The Shift, Brown relays the unforgettable details of her daily life as a nurse, this time looking back at some of her own cases and considering what she didn’t know then about the warping effects of fear and the healing virtues of compassion. Healing is a must-read for anyone who has ever interacted (or ever will interact) with medicine, which is all of us.
Books, baseball cards, ceramic figurines, art, iPhones, clothing, cars, music, dolls, furniture, and even nature itself. If you're like most people, at some point in your life you've found yourself indulging in a love affair with some thing that brings you immense joy, comfort, or fulfillment. Why is it that we so often feel intense passion for objects? What does this tendency tell us about ourselves and our society?
In The Things We Love, Dr. Aaron Ahuvia presents astonishing discoveries that prove we are far less “rational” than we think when it comes to our possessions and hobbies. In fact, we have passionate relationships with the things we love, and these relationships are driven by influences deep within our culture and our biology. Some of our passions are sudden, obsessive, and fleeting; others are devoted and lifelong affairs. Some turn dark: we become hoarders, or would prefer to destroy certain objects rather than let anyone else own them. And as technology improves, becoming increasingly addictive, one wonders: might our lives become so dominated by our emotional ties to things that we lose interest in other people?
Packed with fascinating case studies, scientific analysis, and takeaways for living in a modern and ever-so-material world, The Things We Love offers a truly original and insightful look into our love for inanimate objects — and how better understanding these relationships can enrich and improve our lives.
An award-winning, "unforgettable" novel for fans of Ibi Zoboi and Erika L. Sánchez (SLJ, starred review) about two sisters when the line between family and foe is blurred.
Sisters Cheta and Zam couldn’t be more different. Cheta, sharp-tongued and stubborn, never shies away from conflict—either at school or at home, where her mother fires abuse at her. Timid Zam escapes most of her mother’s anger, skating under the radar and avoiding her sister whenever possible.
In a lucky turn, Zam is invited to live in her aunt’s luxurious home. Jealous, Cheta also leaves home, but to a hard existence that will drive her to terrible decisions. When the sisters are reunited, Zam alone sees just how far Cheta has fallen—and Cheta’s fate is in Zam’s hands.
Kirkus Prize Finalist * Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year * An SLJ Best Book of the Year * A Children’s Africana Book Award Honor Winner * A Rise: A Feminist Book Project honoree * A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year * Nautilus Silver Award Winner * Amazon August Editors' pick
Award-winning psychoanalyst Dr. Galit Atlas draws on her patients' stories—and her own life experiences—to shed light on how generational trauma affects our lives in this "intimate, textured, compassionate" book (Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of The Healing Power of Mindfulness).
The people we love and those who raised us live inside us; we experience their emotional pain, we dream their memories, and these things shape our lives in ways we don’t always recognize. Emotional Inheritance is about family secrets that keep us from living to our full potential, create gaps between what we want for ourselves and what we are able to have, and haunt us like ghosts.In this transformative book, Galit Atlas entwines the stories of her patients, her own stories, and decades of research to help us identify the links between our life struggles and the “emotional inheritance” we all carry. For it is only by following the traces those ghosts leave that we can truly change our destiny.