Best books … chosen by Beth Lisick

Beth Lisick’s new book, Helping Me Help Myself, offers a skeptic’s tour to the world of self-help gurus. Below are six books that the Bay Area humorist has found surprisingly helpful in her own life.

The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Steven R. Covey (Free Press, $16). I don’t care that this book has been ridiculed as Mormon doctrine or employed by cutthroat capitalists to get ahead in business. Though I was skeptical, it showed me a different way to think about my essential character. If you have trouble with procrastination, jealousy, insecurity, or impatience, give it a shot.

The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America

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by Michelle Tea (Semiotext(e), $15). This kinetic roman à clef about a narrator named Michelle who traverses the country searching for her identity as a lesbian, prostitute, vegan, lover, political entity, and citizen of the world changed the way I perceived personal writing. So radically honest your teeth will bleed.

Worshipful Company of Fletchers by James Tate (Ecco, $15). Winner of a 1994 National Book Award, this collection of poetry was the first I’d read from the Pulitzer Prize–winning iconoclast. It blew my mind to know someone could write so exquisitely and unabashedly peculiarly. Some call this “conversational surrealism”; I think of it as the product of a free and deft mind.

Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver (Vintage, $16). This collection of the short-story master’s greatest hits rattles my world every time I read it. Though the conversation still swirls about how heavy a hand editor Gordon Lish had in some of these versions, there is no denying their elegance and power. Carver’s spare style made me think I could try writing some stories of my own. How hard could it be? Ha!

Organizing From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern (Owl, $15). I previously thought that I was just kind of a slob and that’s the way it was always going to be. As I dove into Julie’s philosophy, I realized there was a reason I treated my closet like a dumping ground and wasted money I didn’t have replacing items I’d already bought but couldn’t find.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (Penguin, $8). The lesson? Try to make a better human and you might wind up with something revolting, vengeful, suicidal, and ultimately misunderstood.