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It's tennis season and today we're focusing on bibliotherapy and tennis. As an avid tennis fan who enjoys watching and playing the game, I am really looking forward to Wimbledon this year and plan to attend a couple of days. And as I look forward to this, I could not help but reflect on the subtle commonalities between the two, tennis and bibliotherapy – both in essence mirrors of life, one that holds literature as the mirror and the other, tennis, holds the court as the mirror. For how we approach tennis is how we approach life. Life is often a...

Hi everyone, It's Bijal here from Book Therapy. I am a bibliotherapist and the founder of Book Therapy (a bibliotherapy and literary curation practice). I'm also the author of the book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading.  I curate book prescriptions and provide online training in bibliotherapy, more detail of this can be found here on the Book Therapy website.  I run a bi-weekly podcast, Bibliotherapy with Bijal Shah where I share my knowledge and research on bibliotherapy, including the latest developments, science and book recommendations. Join me every week where we take a deep dive into Bibliotherapy. We release two episodes a week:1.  Voicenotes fom Me, Your Resident Bibliotherapist.2.  Ask the...

   Best Literary Fiction Books of 2023 so far… The Covenant of Water (Literary Fiction) by Abraham Verghese The Covenant of Water is a sweeping novel by talented novelist Abraham Verghese that spans three generations of a family in Kerala, India. The family is cursed with a strange affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning. The matriarch of the family, Big Ammachi, witnesses the effects of this curse firsthand as she watches her loved ones die. She also witnesses the changes that come to Kerala as the country modernizes. The novel is a moving story of love, faith,...

After many, many months of researching, living, and writing about bibliotherapy (which was an incredibly, pleasurable experience!) my new book, Bibliotherapy: The Healing Power of Reading is almost ready! In the early proofreading stages, I can't wait to get it out to you all. Just sharing the cover here, but it's also available for pre-order at any of the bookstores you shop at: Waterstones | Bookshop.org |  Amazon It will be published on 15th February 2024 (a day after Valentine's Day) and will be available in both paperback and hardback - you're welcome to put in an order now! I am so...

There are many definitions of bibliotherapy used in the past: “Bibliotherapy is the use of books to help people solve problems” (Prater, Johnstun, Dyches & Johnstun, 2006; Jackson, 2006).  “[The] use of selected reading material as therapeutic adjuvant in medicine and psychiatry; and, guidance in the solution of personal problems through directed reading” (Jackson, 2006).  “therapeutic reading in which children find duplications of their own problems and observe how children similar to themselves face their difficulties” (Jack & Ronan, 2008). "Bibliotherapy is thought of as a sensitive and non-intrusive method of guiding people [and children] towards problem solving and coping in...