Get happier this weekend with a free book by the bestselling author, Tal Ben-Shahar.

Oliver Burkeman, writer of This column will change your life, and author of HELP! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done, shares his view of the book below:

There are few self-help books more resolutely down-to-earth than Happier, by Tal Ben-Shahar, the researcher whose Harvard course on happiness was the university's best-attended lecture series.

Drawing on recent findings in positive psychology — the contemporary study of happiness that should not be confused with "positive thinking" — Ben-Shahar emphasizes the benefits of cultivating gratitude and accepting negative emotions, providing straightforward guidelines for integrating these habits into daily life.

The modest tone of the title encapsulates Ben-Shahar's approach: his book won't eliminate your every problem, but it doesn't claim to. (And the books that do claim to won't do so, either.)