Author Guide · Self-Help & Spirituality
Books Written by
Danielle LaPorte once threw out her New Year’s list of goals and wrote down four feelings instead: feminine, connected, innovative and affluent. She kept them on a sticky note in her planner, and the idea became The Desire Map (2012), a book that grew into a day planner, an app and a workshop programme run by more than 400 licensed facilitators in 32 countries. Born in Windsor, Ontario, without a university degree, she worked at The Body Shop in Canada and ran a Washington think tank, the Arlington Institute, before she started writing. She lives in Vancouver. This guide covers her 5 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 5 key books · 2008–2022 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Danielle LaPorte has written five key books: Style Statement (2008, with Carrie McCarthy), The Fire Starter Sessions (2012), The Desire Map (2012), White Hot Truth (2017) and How to Be Loving (2022). Start with The Desire Map, the book her planners, journals and workshops are built on; the rest of this guide shows where each of the others fits.
Where to Start with Danielle LaPorte
If you want her best-known idea
→ The Desire Map (2012) — set goals by how you want to feel.
If you want work and career
→ The Fire Starter Sessions (2012) — her guide to defining success on your own terms.
If you want her take on the spiritual scene
→ White Hot Truth (2017) — on gurus, practices and keeping your own judgement.
If you want her most recent book
→ How to Be Loving (2022) — on acceptance, forgiveness and living from the heart.
5 Danielle LaPorte Books, in Order
Style Statement
Her first book, written with Carrie McCarthy and published by Little, Brown in December 2008. It asks readers to find a two-word “Style Statement”: the first word is the foundation, the second what sets you apart. A “Lifestyle Map” then applies the two words to clothes, home, relationships and work, half workbook and half narrative.
The Fire Starter Sessions
Published by Crown Archetype in April 2012, two years after LaPorte was pushed out of a lifestyle media company she had co-founded, which she later called a “coup d’état”. Each session questions a standard piece of success advice and ends with worksheets. She mixes her own story of loss and recovery with accounts of people who stopped playing it safe.
The Desire Map
Self-published in December 2012 and reissued in a revised edition by Sounds True in January 2014. The book argues that every goal is a chase after a feeling, so readers first name three to five “core desired feelings” and then keep or drop goals depending on whether they produce them. It became a day planner, a top-10 iTunes app and a licensed workshop programme.
White Hot Truth
Published in May 2017 by Virtuonica, her own publishing company, at 264 pages. LaPorte looks back on years of yoga, shamanic calls, guided visualisations and other practices, and on the point where her spiritual path became “another to-do list”. Chapters cover forgiveness, boundaries and humility, with eighteen handwritten “#Truthbombs”. Foreword Reviews singled out her candour about her own missteps.
How to Be Loving
Published by Sounds True in October 2022. The book argues that change comes more from letting go than from learning new techniques, and works through acceptance, forgiveness and choosing better thoughts. It was followed in November 2022 by a companion journal and a card deck.
In What Order to Read Danielle LaPorte
None of the books depends on another, so you can start anywhere. Publication order does show a shift: the first two are about style, work and success, The Desire Map moves the question to feelings, and the two later books are about spiritual practice and love.
The Desire Map is the centre of her work, and her planners, journals and workshops all use its vocabulary. Read it before the companion products, and read White Hot Truth before How to Be Loving, which builds on the same voice.
A reading path
1. The Desire Map (2012)
2. The Fire Starter Sessions (2012)
3. White Hot Truth (2017)
4. How to Be Loving (2022)
Everything Else Danielle LaPorte Published
Beyond the 5 key books: 5 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Companion journals, decks and audio
5
5 books · 2014–2022
- 2014The Desire Map Experienceaudio programme, Sounds True
- 2014The Desire Map Dailyaudio programme, Sounds True
- 2017Truthbomb Card DeckVolumes 1 and 2, revised editions
- 2022How to Be Loving: The Journalcompanion journal, Sounds True
- 2022How to Be Loving: The Deckcompanion card deck
The years · 2008–2022
Quick facts about Danielle LaPorte
- Known for
- Danielle LaPorte is known for The Desire Map’s idea of “core desired feelings”, setting goals by how you want to feel rather than what you want to achieve.
- 2008
- Style Statement, her first book
- 2012
- The Desire Map
- 2014
- Sounds True edition of The Desire Map
- 2017
- White Hot Truth
- 2022
- How to Be Loving
- Born
- 25 May, Windsor, Ontario; grew up in rural Essex County as an only child
- Education
- Did not attend college or university
- Worked
- The Body Shop Canada; executive director of the Arlington Institute, Washington, DC
- Business
- Founded Virtuonica, her own publishing division, in 2016
- Recognition
- Invited member of Oprah Winfrey’s inaugural SuperSoul 100
- Lives
- Vancouver, British Columbia
The red mark is 2012: The Desire Map, the book her planners and workshops grew from.
How Danielle LaPorte Writes: Feelings First
Her central move is to put a feeling ahead of a goal. In The Desire Map she argues that “we are feeling-driven creatures”, so readers name their core desired feelings first and judge plans by whether they produce them; she calls the result “goals with soul”.
The books are built to be used as much as read. Style Statement and The Fire Starter Sessions end their chapters with worksheets, and The Desire Map comes with planners, a journal and licensed workshops. Short, quotable lines she calls “#Truthbombs” run through the later books and became card decks of their own.
She writes in the first person and uses her own life as evidence: being pushed out of her company, the years of spiritual shopping in White Hot Truth. Reviewers note that she makes fun of her own missteps rather than presenting herself as a guru.
Frequently asked questions about Danielle LaPorte’s books
How many books has Danielle LaPorte written?
Five key books: Style Statement (2008, with Carrie McCarthy), The Fire Starter Sessions (2012), The Desire Map (2012), White Hot Truth (2017) and How to Be Loving (2022). She has also published companion journals, card decks and audio programmes.
What are Danielle LaPorte’s books in order?
Style Statement (2008), The Fire Starter Sessions (2012), The Desire Map (2012), White Hot Truth (2017) and How to Be Loving (2022).
Where should I start with Danielle LaPorte?
The Desire Map. It sets out the idea of core desired feelings that the rest of her work, including the planners and workshops, is built on. If your question is about work and career, start with The Fire Starter Sessions.
What is Danielle LaPorte’s most famous book?
The Desire Map (2012). It became a day planner and journal system, a top-10 iTunes app and a workshop programme with more than 400 facilitators in 32 countries.
What are core desired feelings?
The term comes from The Desire Map: the three to five feelings you most want to have, such as connected or free. LaPorte suggests choosing them first and then keeping only the goals and actions that produce them.
What is the Desire Map Planner?
A day planner and journal system that grew out of the book, built around its core desired feelings. It is one of several companion products, alongside audio programmes, an app and licensed workshops.
Is The Fire Starter Sessions about business?
Partly. It is about defining success on your own terms, in work and in life, with worksheets at the end of each session. LaPorte uses her own story, including being pushed out of the company she co-founded in 2010.
What is White Hot Truth about?
Her account of years spent trying spiritual practices, from yoga to shamanic calls, and of learning to trust her own judgement rather than teachers’. It covers forgiveness, boundaries and humility, and was published in 2017.
Did Danielle LaPorte go to university?
No. She did not attend college or university. She started out as an assistant and publicist for self-help authors, worked at The Body Shop in Canada and became executive director of the Arlington Institute, a think tank in Washington, DC.
Footnotes
- Danielle LaPorte — Wikipedia
- Danielle LaPorte — Sounds True
- White Hot Truth — Foreword Reviews
- A Feel for Living: Danielle LaPorte — Experience Life, 2016
- How to Be Loving — 49th Shelf
- Style Statement — 49th Shelf
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Instead of medicating with Marlboros and martinis, we might be doing it with metaphysics and macrobiotics.”
— Danielle LaPorte, White Hot Truth (2017)
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