Books in Brief: November 2025

Wise effort is an essential element of the Buddhist eightfold path; it means letting go of harmful habits and cultivating positive, productive ones. In Wise Effort: How to Focus Your Genius Energy on What Matters Most (Sounds True), Diana Hill, PhD, combines this foundational Buddhist principle with ideas drawn from ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy). She encourages readers to tap into what she calls their “genius energy”—a kind of inner spark—and to channel it wisely through three steps: get curious, open up, and focus your energy. If you’ve ever felt like a bird trapped inside a house, flinging itself against a closed window again and again, you may be misusing your energy. This book will help you act out of love rather than fear, and in accordance with your values. 

On a boat caught in a storm, panic can spread quickly, making everything worse. Yet one calm person can change the mood, influencing the others, and even altering the outcome. Calm in the Storm: Zen Ways to Cultivate Stability in an Anxious World (Parallax) aims to guide the reader back to their own inner stability. We may not be able to change the world, but we can change ourselves—and in doing so, help steady the boat in turbulent times. Brother Phap Huu and Jo Confino—cohosts of the Plum Village podcast The Way Out Is In—have collaborated to explore healing through practices like reconnecting with the inner child, expressing gratitude, navigating perfectionism and competition, and taking the middle path. With a blend of spiritual nourishment and practical encouragement, they offer guidance for weathering life’s storms. As they write: “From this place of calmness, contemplation, and acknowledgment of what is, we can look our challenges directly in the eye, without averting our gaze, and remain steady.”

Discover Niguma yoga, a thousand-year-old tradition that is believed to have been developed by the yogini Niguma, kept secret for seven generations, and traditionally shared only with great caution within the Himalayan Vajrayana community. Today, His Eminence the Second Kalu Rinpoche believes the time for secrecy has passed. In this new book, The Yoga of Niguma: Tibetan Practices for a Luminous Mind (Wisdom), he offers a comprehensive presentation of the practice’s twenty-five posture sequences, complete with illustrations, preparatory guidance, precautions, and a brief synopsis of the benefits of each. The book also opens with a personal preface in which Kalu Rinpoche reflects on his own deep connection to Niguma yoga. Dedicated practitioners, we learn, can expect to clear the body’s energetic channels and strengthen the mind, thereby improving their meditation practice. Readers inspired to explore further are invited to join the Wisdom Academy online courses Niguma’s Dream Yoga and The Illusory Body and Mind.

Happiness isn’t something you achieve; it’s about daily practices that, over time, become habits. Now, from Greater Good Science Center comes The Science of Happiness Workbook: 10 Practices for a Meaningful Life (Norton), which helps readers build those daily habits. Written by Kira M. Newman, Jill Suttie, and Shuka Kalantari, the workbook features twenty-one practices, each introduced by a brief quiz and followed by space for reflection and a plan to integrate the practice into one’s life going forward. The exercises are based on key pillars, including connection, kindness, empathy, and awe. In the chapter on connection, for instance, the quiz asks: “How connected are you?” A suggested practice to foster connection is to ask someone to share something positive that happened to them and really listen. Readers are then invited to create a schedule for making this kind of meaningful connection regularly. Change is possible—and taking this first step can be both courageous and exciting.

The instinct to seek revenge when we’re wronged is ancient—just think of the oft-cited Old Testament line, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Yet this drive to get payback only prolongs suffering, cycling it endlessly between victim and perpetrator. In his latest book, Sweeter than Revenge: Overcoming Your Payback Mind (Shambhala), David Richo examines this primal impulse and offers alternatives based in compassion and loving-kindness. Nonretaliation, he says, is not only the ethical path, but also an important ingredient of psychological and spiritual health. Richo discusses revenge both in personal relationships and at the community level, offering step-by-step practices for handling difficult situations. The book includes a curated collection of quotes on revenge, which readers can use as part of a meditation practice.

Chief priest of Fukugonji Temple in Japan, Gensho Taigu offers a warm and accessible path forward in The Zen Guide to Opening Your Heart: Practical Advice from a Zen Buddhist Monk (Tuttle). Written with the hope of lighting your way through the world, the book is filled with gentle reflections, simple truths, and charming line drawings of a cat. Among its adages: “All worries are transitory,” and “The desire to compare is the root of all suffering.” Gensho Taigu explains to us that while life will always contain suffering, we can ease our present pain through a Buddhist-inspired approach. By turning inward, observing our own minds, and awakening to the truth, we can steady ourselves in the face of anger and sadness. As Gensho Taigu puts it: “Buddhism is a packaged ‘method of awareness’ to help you look at yourself clearly.”

It’s human nature to try to avoid suffering. In his new book 6 Myths We Live By and How to Overcome Them (Wisdom), psychotherapist and business psychologist Karuna Cayton explores what he asserts are the six core myths that many Westerners cling to in their attempts to escape suffering: reality, identity, permanence, randomness, happiness, and the idea that you only live once. Drawing from his perspective shaped by twelve years of monastic study in Nepal, he dismantles each myth—encouraging us to let go of the illusion of an unchanging, monolithic “I” and to recognize our interdependence. In the second half of the book, Cayton offers guided meditations to help readers move beyond intellectual understanding and to truly sit with the concepts introduced.

In this beautifully illustrated storybook for children, the deity Tara is depicted in her many colorful manifestations. My Friend Tara: And Her Rainbow of Compassion (Bala Kids) by Lasha Mutual and Ivan Bercholz tells the story of her origin: Long ago, the Buddha of Compassion was so saddened by the suffering in the world that he wept a pool of tears. From that pool, a lotus flower grew—and from the lotus blossomed Tara, who came into being to help all who suffer. To reach as many beings as possible, Tara manifested in a rainbow of colors, each offering a different kind of support. White Tara brings calm and peacefulness, easing sadness and improving sleep. Yellow Tara offers richness and protection, helping to provide warm homes and nourishing food. Red Tara brings positivity, sometimes in the form of laughter and friendship. Blue Tara challenges negative emotions, sometimes before they even arise. And Green Tara provides protection and compassionate action.