Our pick of the best post-holiday books to listen to.

Blue Monday may officially be the most miserable date in the calendar. But the day you return to work after your summer holiday is surely a close contender. Your tan is fading before your eyes. Your To Do list has come rushing up to meet you like a 10ft wave. Your sense of oneness and wellbeing just gave you the slip somewhere on the the Tube. Whether you want to change your life, change the world, confront career setbacks or simply climb a big tree and damn well stay there, here are five inspirational audiobooks to help you beat the post-holiday blues.

Little Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe The World

by Admiral William H McRaven

Penguin, 1hr 43mins

Sometimes all you need to get you sitting up straight in life’s driving seat is a stern, fatherly talking-to from a retired navy commander. Admiral William H McRaven went viral when he delivered a Commencement Day speech to the University of Texas inspired by his career as a Navy Seal. Building on the 10 core principles laid out in that speech, his new book is about the basic, practical things you can do to change your life. Step one: make your bed.

Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, And Finding Joy

by Ms Sheryl Sandberg and Mr Adam Grant

Random House, 6hr 14mins

An intensely personal book about “post-traumatic growth” from Facebook COO Ms Sheryl Sandberg and psychologist Mr Adam Grant. When Ms Sandberg’s husband died suddenly in 2015, she thought she’d never feel joy again. But her friend Mr Grant, a professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told her resilience is a muscle, and there are concrete steps we can all take to build it. American actress Ms Elisa Donovan reads this book about creating resilient families, communities and workplaces, with insights that apply to everyday struggles as well as acute trauma.

The New Japanese Minimalism

by Mr Fumio Sasaki

Blackstone Audiobooks, 4hrs 31mins

Admirals and Silicon Valley chiefs aren’t the only ones with words of wisdom to impart. Sometimes the best advice comes from regular guys in their thirties who live in tiny studios in Tokyo. Mr Fumio Sasaki was fed up being miserable, constantly comparing himself to others, and believing his life sucked. Stuff was weighing him down, so he started to get rid of it. His pared-back guide to paring back, tracing the history of minimalism from Zen Buddhism to Mr Steve Jobs, is a bestseller in Japan.

Defeating The New Shock Politics

by Ms Naomi Klein

Penguin, 7hrs 55mins

The latest work from Ms Naomi Klein, author of the zeitgeist-defining No Logo, is a rapid response to President Donald Trump and a toolkit for resistance. It’s an attempt to work out how we got to such a surreal political moment, and plan ahead for a radically better future. No Is Not Enough refuses to be buffeted by shock politics and urges us to keep ours heads. Author Ms Arundhati Roy has called it “an ordinary person’s guide to hope”. Yep, we’ll have some of that please.

A Memoir

by Mr James Aldred

Penguin, 7hrs 55mins

Tree climbing is basically the spiritual antithesis of commuting. But Mr James Aldred has managed to turn the ultimate escapist pursuit into a career. A professional tree climber, Mr Aldred travels the globe filming wildlife for the BBC, from the strangler fig tree of Borneo to the towering mountain ash of Australia. His memoir is a vivid evocation of life among the branches, and an invitation to us all to “rise above the daily grind”.

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