In an interview we did last October with our old friend and colleague, Todd Sattersten, about his book 100 Best Books for Work and Life, we asked, “What is one unanswered question you encountered as you wrote the book that you are most interested in answering now?”   

His reply was: 

I think the world of business books and self-help books have been on a collision course for many years. It is getting very hard to tell them apart now. I am wondering what kinds of books do professionals need to do their best work in 2025. 

Todd, as an author and a publisher, is rightly focused on what kinds of books professionals need so that he can meet that need in the marketplace. We humbly suggest you follow what he is doing at Bard Press. As a bookseller specializing in bulk book sales and logistics, we are experts at getting books into the hands of those professionals Todd is speaking about, but we have a slightly different perspective on the question—an especially pertinent question in the personal development category. 

Before we go any further into that perspective, let's skip to the chase: the links to excerpts from the books in the Personal Development & Human Behavior category of the 2025 Porchlight Business Book Awards.

Excerpts from the Best Personal Development & Human Behavior Books of 2025

• Anointed: The Extraordinary Effects of Social Status in a Winner-Take-Most World by Toby Stuart, Simon & Schuster  
• Charlatans: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Hucksters Bamboozle the Media, the Markets, and the Masses by Moises Naim & Quico Toro, Basic Books 
• Digital Exhaustion: Simple Rules for Reclaiming Your Life by Paul Leonardi, Riverhead Books  
• Don’t Be Yourself: Why Authenticity Is Overrated (and What to Do Instead) by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Harvard Business Review Press  
• How to Be Free: A Proven Guide to Escaping Life's Hidden Prisons by Shaka Senghor, Authors Equity  
• The Ideological Brain: The Radical Science of Flexible Thinking by Leor Zmigrod, Henry Holt & Company  
• Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change by Olga Khazan, Simon Element  
• Play the Game. Change the Game. Leave the Game.: Pathways to Black Empowerment, Prosperity, and Joy by Robert Livingston, Crown Currency  
• The Price of Nice: Why Comfort Keeps Us Stuck and 4 Actions for Real Change by Amira Barger, Berrett-Koehler 
• Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age by Vauhini Vara, Pantheon Books 

When making recommendations and touting the books we believe in, as an independent bookseller whose values, ethos, and indie spirit were formed in the Harry W. Shwartz Bookshops our company was founded in, we are guided by the words of Harry’s son A. David Schwartz, who once said that: 

The true profit in bookselling is the social profit; the bottom line, the measure of the impact of the books on the community.  

So, while our awards are focused on business topics and books we believe will benefit businesses, the business world, and the professionals whose work builds both, we are guided first by thoughts of the people doing that work in our community, by the questions and aspirations they have, and the challenges they face. We know that the most avid readers of the books we recommend work in many different fields. They work in nonprofits, as teachers and administrators in public education, as entrepreneurs and freelancers. They are also corporate climbers and company leaders. But they are all individuals who are more than the job or title they have. Contrary to popular advice in many business books, we don’t believe that everyone needs to “bring their whole self” to work. At least two of the books on our list this year suggest we do the opposite. But we do believe every reader needs to bring their entire self to the books they read. It is by doing so that books can change you, because once you crack open a book, it has a chance to crack you open. With the self-awareness and understanding that results, we can unlock our best work and decide how and where we want to do it. 

We also believe that any list of business books should include not only books about how we can thrive at work—in whatever kind of business or organization we work in—but also how the biggest and most influential businesses, and our prevailing business culture, affect us  all. So we have books that might be shelved under self-help and business in your local bookstore, but we also have books that might not be anywhere near those sections, such as literary criticism, essays, or even true crime. Regardless of where you find it, we think you’ll find at least one book on the list above that helps you navigate work and the world today. If not, we refer you back to Todd Sattersten, who has a book with 100 more such recommendations.