I was worried that this book on hygge (hoo-ga) by Meik Wiking would have me rushing out to buy things to make my home more cozy, tossing all my (newish) minimalist principles aside in the process. I actually found a lot of overlaps between hygge and minimalism, in the sense that the ultimate goal of both concepts is happiness. 

This is a memoir by J.D. Vance who grew up poor in Ohio, with family originally from the Appalachia area of Tennessee. In short, he had a pretty shitty childhood involving a revolving door of step-fathers.  He joined the marines after high school, then graduated from Ohio State, and went on to Yale Law School.

Charles Montgomery wrote this cool non-fiction book on what makes a city a happy one.  Or more really how can we design cities to make people happy.

This book is Jeannette Walls' insane memoir, describing the her crazy childhood with nomadic parents.

The author, Matthew Desmond, did great in telling a story while also educating the reader about the devastating effects eviction can have on individuals, families, and communities.