Here's a book for you overprotective helicopter parents out there: Jessica Lahey's The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed is a manifesto about the importance of letting school-aged children experience disappointment and failure early on so they can grow up to be resilient and self-sufficient adults. I discovered this book via Ryan Holiday, who called it one of the best books he read in 2017:

My favorite moment: The dilemma for the author as she finds her son's neatly finished homework assignment on the kitchen table after he has left for school. She was already driving past the school later for other reasons, should she bail him out? Or let him handle this on his own?

While it's ostensibly a book for parents, anyone who has problems dealing with life's obstacles can learn a thing or two from it. You'll come away with lots of great thought exercises to try out in your own life.

Get the book in these formats:

• Kindle ($9)
• iBooks ($9)
• Hardcover ($16)
• Paperback ($10)
• Audible audiobook ($21)
• Audio CD ($29)