Heart Essays

James Allen. Selected Works brings together two of the most influential and enduring classics of personal development: As a Man Thinketh and Out from the Heart. These short, thoughtful essays explore the power of thought, the formation of character, the nature of habit, and the quiet strength of self-mastery. First published over a century ago, these works continue to resonate with readers seeking clarity, purpose, and peace of mind. Allen's style is calm, concise, and deeply reflective—free from hype, but rich in insight. There are no quick fixes here. No twelve-step programs.

In Struck Inside Out, writer and blogger Danielle Bertoli delivers lessons on cultivating daily inspiration, overcoming heartbreak, and loving yourself unconditionally. This moving companion offers reminders that no matter what you’re going through, you can handle it. Through reflections in poetry and prose, Danielle shares her story of overcoming obstacles to transform self-doubt into self-love.

In this remarkable audiobook of days, John Hildebrand charts the overlapping rings - home, town, countryside - of life in the Midwest. Like E. B. White, Hildebrand locates the humor and drama in ordinary life. In these wry, sharply observed essays, the Midwest isn’t "The Land Time Forgot", but a more complicated (and vastly more interesting) place where the good life awaits once we figure exactly out what it means.

A remarkable insight into the birth of a writer and the moving discovery of family secrets. When Hanif Kureishi discovers an abandoned manuscript of his father's, his understanding of the family history is transformed. So begins a journey which takes Kureishi through his father's privileged childhood by the sea in Bombay, to the trauma of partition and to his adult life hidden away in the suburbs of Bromley - his days spent as a minor functionary in the Pakistan embassy in London, his nights writing prose, hopeful of one day receiving literary recognition.

A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life by Pat Conroy is a new nonfiction collection of letters, interviews, and magazine articles spanning Conroy's long literary career, supplemented by touching pieces from the beloved author's many friends. The book collects some of Conroy's most charming pieces of short nonfiction, many of them addressed directly to his listeners, with his habitual greeting: "Hey, out there".

Provocative, thoughtful, beautiful, these essays have a directness and humanity that connects with our era.

This essay comes from the NPR series This I Believe, which features brief personal reflections from both famous and unknown Americans. The pieces that make up the series compel listeners to rethink not only what and how they have arrived at their beliefs, but also the extent to which they share them with others.