I have written a lot of books in a short amount of time, and yes, I know that sounds a little insane. It felt a little insane while I was doing it. But these books did not come from nowhere. They came from years of living, leading, grieving, loving, questioning, raising kids, watching people suffer, sitting with families, leaving old certainties, learning how my own brain works, and trying to stay human in a world that keeps making that harder than it should be.
Some books come from the clean, organized part of a writer’s mind. These did not. These came from the questions I could not stop carrying. How do we stay connected when everyone is pulling apart? How do men become better without needing applause for the bare minimum? How do we believe women in pain the first time? How do families survive Alzheimer’s when the goodbye starts years before death? How do people with ADHD stop seeing themselves as broken? How do we face AI without surrendering the human part of ourselves? How do we leave something that shaped us and still stay whole?
That is the world these books live in. They are different books, but they all come from the same place: real life, honest questions, and the belief that words can help people feel less alone. If you are new to my work, start with the book that meets what you are carrying right now.
Start with Human First if you are trying to stay connected in a divided world
Human First is the center of the work. This book is about staying connected in a world that keeps rewarding outrage, certainty, contempt, and performance. It is about disagreement without losing each other. It is about dignity. It is about seeing people as human before you decide what box they belong in.
I wrote this because I am tired of watching people confuse conviction with cruelty. We can care deeply, disagree honestly, fight for what matters, and still refuse to forget the humanity of the people around us. If you are exhausted by the noise but still believe people are worth reaching for, this is the place to begin.
Start with Still My Mom if Alzheimer’s has touched your family
Still My Mom is one of the most personal books I have written. It is about my mother, Alzheimer’s, family, love, loss, and the long goodbye. Writing it asked me to go back into rooms I had quietly closed inside myself. It asked me to remember not only who Mom was before the disease, but also who she remained as Alzheimer’s changed her.
Families living with dementia know the strange pain of losing someone in pieces. You grieve before the funeral. You miss someone while they are still sitting in front of you. You carry guilt, exhaustion, tenderness, anger, confusion, and love all at once. This book does not pretend Alzheimer’s is gentle. It tells the truth. It also honors what the disease could not take.
If your family is walking through dementia, I believe this book can help. It will not fix the pain. Nothing does. But it can give you language, comfort, practical steps, and the reminder that you are not alone.
Start with Believe Her the First Time if you love someone with endometriosis
Believe Her the First Time came from love, frustration, and the reality of watching people I love live with endometriosis. This book is for partners, fathers, mothers, friends, families, and anyone who wants to support someone in pain without making that pain about themselves.
Endometriosis is not bad cramps. It is not drama. It is not weakness. It is not something people should have to prove over and over before they are believed. This book is about belief, medical dismissal, pain that gets minimized, and the emotional toll of explaining your suffering to people who should have listened sooner.
If you love someone with endometriosis, this book gives you a way to show up better. Read it before you say the wrong thing. Read it before you dismiss what you do not understand. Read it because someone you love may be carrying more pain than they have ever been able to explain.
Start with Man vs. Menopause if perimenopause is affecting your relationship
I wrote Man vs. Menopause for men who love their partners and do not want to make a hard season harder. Perimenopause is changing marriages, relationships, homes, bodies, moods, sleep, intimacy, confidence, and identity. Too many men are standing there confused, defensive, joking, minimizing, or acting like the whole thing is an inconvenience to them.
That is not good enough. This book is direct, practical, honest, and written for husbands and partners who need a better map. It does not ask men to become experts overnight. It asks them to become less clueless, less defensive, and more useful. If your partner is going through perimenopause, do not wait until she is exhausted from explaining herself. Read the book, pay attention, and show up differently.
Start with Still Here, Still Trying if you are tired but not done
Still Here, Still Trying is a collection of honest stories for people who are carrying more than they say out loud. It is about grief, family, failure, work, exhaustion, hope, and the ordinary moments that somehow teach us how to keep going.
I wrote it for people who are not falling apart in public but are worn down in private. The people who keep showing up. The people who do not need someone to yell inspiration at them. They need words that sit beside them and tell the truth. If that is you, this book may meet you in the middle of the mess.
Start with Beautifully Unfocused if ADHD explains more of your life than you expected
Beautifully Unfocused is for people with too many tabs open in their brain and too much heart to pretend they do not care. It is about ADHD, creativity, leadership, distraction, shame, systems, family, work, and learning how to stop treating your mind like a broken machine.
ADHD is often described only by what it disrupts: missed details, lost keys, unfinished projects, late replies, messy rooms, and half-built ideas. All of that can be real, but it is not the whole story. There is also intuition, pattern recognition, creative fire, emotional depth, strange connections, fast thinking, and the ability to see possibilities other people miss.
This book does not romanticize ADHD. It does not turn it into a superpower sticker. It tells the truth about the hard parts while making room for the beauty. If you have spent years thinking you were lazy, scattered, inconsistent, or too much, this book may help you see yourself with more compassion and better tools.
Start with The Future Still Needs Us if you are thinking about AI and what comes next
AI is already here, and most of the conversation around it is panic, hype, money, or people trying to sound smart. The Future Still Needs Us is my attempt to stay grounded in the middle of all of that.
This book is about AI, creativity, healthcare, community, power, technology, and what it means to stay human while the world changes fast. I am not anti-AI. I use it. I create with it. I believe it can help. I also believe the future needs people with conscience, imagination, courage, and care. The future cannot be left to tools, billionaires, algorithms, or whatever platform happens to be loudest this week.
If you are trying to understand AI without surrendering your humanity, this book is a good place to start.
Start with Still Good if you are rebuilding faith after leaving Mormonism
Still Good is a memoir about leaving Mormonism and staying whole. Faith transition can make people feel like they have lost more than belief. Sometimes it feels like losing identity, language, belonging, certainty, family patterns, community, and the version of yourself other people understood.
I did not write this book to attack the people I love. I did not write it to mock faith. I wrote it because leaving something that shaped you is complicated. There can be grief and gratitude in the same story. There can be anger and tenderness. There can be relief and sadness. There can be love for people still inside the tradition and honesty about the harm you experienced.
This book is for people trying to leave without becoming bitter, stay kind without staying silent, and rebuild without pretending it did not hurt.
Start with The Optimist’s Way if you need hope that still tells the truth
The Optimist’s Way is about realistic optimism. Not fake positivity. Not pretending everything is fine. Not smiling through things that need to be named. Realistic optimism looks at reality clearly and still chooses to act with hope.
This book came from years of being told I was too optimistic while also living through enough hard things to know optimism is not the absence of pain. It is the decision not to let pain become the only author of the future. If you are trying to keep your hope without becoming naive, this book belongs on your list.
Start with Get Out of the Way if you care about women leading
Get Out of the Way is a direct book for men. It is for men who say they support women but still interrupt, explain, control, delay, dominate, or quietly expect the room to organize itself around them.
This book is about men becoming honest. Women do not need another tribute to their strength from men who still hold onto the microphone. They need men to move, listen, change, and take responsibility for the systems and habits that keep getting excused. If you are a man who wants to be better, read it. If you are raising sons, read it. If you lead people, read it. If you think this book is only about other men, you may need it more than you think.
Start with The Better Man Field Guide if you are a man who wants to grow
The Better Man Field Guide is practical. It is for men who want to become more honest, steady, responsible, emotionally present, and useful in the lives of the people they love.
The book is built around growth that shows up in real life: how you listen, how you repair, how you handle anger, how you respond when someone is hurting, how you carry responsibility, and how you stop making the people around you manage your emotional immaturity. This is not about perfection. It is about becoming safer, clearer, kinder, and more accountable.
Coming soon: You Deserve More Than This
You Deserve More Than This is coming soon, and I am not writing it softly. This book is for women who are tired of shrinking, explaining, waiting, hoping, excusing, managing, and surviving relationships with men who refuse to grow.
It is a clear, caring book about safety, dignity, self-trust, and the moment you begin to believe you deserve more than the bare minimum. It is not written to lecture women from a distance. It is written with care for the woman who already knows something is wrong but has been talked out of trusting herself.
Start where the book meets you
You do not need to read these books in order. Start with the one that speaks to your life right now. If you are grieving, start with grief. If you are trying to understand your brain, start with ADHD. If someone you love is in pain, start with belief. If your marriage is changing, start with support. If your faith is shifting, start with honesty. If the future scares you, start with the future. If the world feels divided, start with being human.
These books are not separate islands. They talk to each other. They circle the same questions from different directions. How do we love better? How do we stay honest? How do we keep going? How do we change? How do we stay human?
That is the work.
If one of these books helps you, share it with someone who needs it. Read one, give one, review one. The right book at the right time can do more than sit on a shelf. Sometimes it gives someone words they did not know they needed.
Start here: https://www.mikebakerhq.com/booksBooks