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How To Hold a Cockroach: A book for those who are free and don't know it
How to Hold a Cockroach is about discovering and freeing ourselves from the beliefs that cause us to suffer. With a message both surprising and simple, it is a love letter to humankind, a book for those who are free and don't know it.
An Inspirational Tale with 42 Beautiful Illustrations In this story for all ages, a struggling boy begins a life-changing journey when a disgusting guest disturbs his dinner. As he encounters more sources of suffering, the boy must investigate fundamental truths he has believed about himself, love, and life. He confronts some of life's most persistent questions:
Described as "a children's book for adults," How to Hold a Cockroach was written for adults but is suitable for thoughtful teenagers and children.
For Readers Who Are... ✓ Looking for contemplative and inspirational books about philosophy, spirituality, or psychology.
✓ Facing challenging circumstances, heartbreak, low self-esteem, or resentment towards others.
✓ Finding it difficult to accept the past or fearing what the future will bring.
✓ Fans of the works of Paulo Coelho, Kobi Yamada, or Charlie Mackesy; books like The Alchemist , The Tao of Pooh , The Little Prince , and The Untethered Soul ; or spiritual teachers like Tara Brach, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, and Cheri Huber.
Regardless of your birthplace, background, or spiritual beliefs -- Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, Muslim, Jewish, Latter-day Saint, or anything else - this book invites you to explore how you see yourself and the world, re-examine your perspectives, and free yourself to experience more joy, peace, and love.
Choose Your Edition The hardcover edition is 7x10 inches and contains full-color illustrations.
The paperback edition is 6x9 inches and contains black-and-white illustrations.
The Kindle edition contains full-color illustrations (or black-and-white if your device does not support color).
An Inspirational Tale with 42 Beautiful Illustrations In this story for all ages, a struggling boy begins a life-changing journey when a disgusting guest disturbs his dinner. As he encounters more sources of suffering, the boy must investigate fundamental truths he has believed about himself, love, and life. He confronts some of life's most persistent questions:
Described as "a children's book for adults," How to Hold a Cockroach was written for adults but is suitable for thoughtful teenagers and children.
For Readers Who Are... ✓ Looking for contemplative and inspirational books about philosophy, spirituality, or psychology.
✓ Facing challenging circumstances, heartbreak, low self-esteem, or resentment towards others.
✓ Finding it difficult to accept the past or fearing what the future will bring.
✓ Fans of the works of Paulo Coelho, Kobi Yamada, or Charlie Mackesy; books like The Alchemist , The Tao of Pooh , The Little Prince , and The Untethered Soul ; or spiritual teachers like Tara Brach, Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, and Cheri Huber.
Regardless of your birthplace, background, or spiritual beliefs -- Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, Muslim, Jewish, Latter-day Saint, or anything else - this book invites you to explore how you see yourself and the world, re-examine your perspectives, and free yourself to experience more joy, peace, and love.
Choose Your Edition The hardcover edition is 7x10 inches and contains full-color illustrations.
The paperback edition is 6x9 inches and contains black-and-white illustrations.
The Kindle edition contains full-color illustrations (or black-and-white if your device does not support color).
110 pages, Hardcover
Published April 10, 2020
275 people are currently reading
4917 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 494 reviews
May 5, 2025
Perception is Reality
This one surprised me. How to Hold a Cockroach is simple, short, and a little odd; however, the message is loud and clear. The cockroach is not just a bug in this story; it is an analogy for the things we are taught to fear and how easily our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are shaped by perception.
“Scared for not what things are, but for what we are made to believe”
A little basic, but thoughtful and a great reminder to challenge what we have been taught to fear and avoid. Sorry, but I still do not like cockroaches and I do not think that will ever change!
“Go away cockroach - leave me alone🪳!”
This one surprised me. How to Hold a Cockroach is simple, short, and a little odd; however, the message is loud and clear. The cockroach is not just a bug in this story; it is an analogy for the things we are taught to fear and how easily our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are shaped by perception.
“Scared for not what things are, but for what we are made to believe”
A little basic, but thoughtful and a great reminder to challenge what we have been taught to fear and avoid. Sorry, but I still do not like cockroaches and I do not think that will ever change!
“Go away cockroach - leave me alone🪳!”
August 7, 2022
This book just lighted something within me and made me feel so much happier. First, I would never touch a cockroach. Second, this book is about how to look into the minor incidents that we encounter in everyday life with curiosity and compassion. I strongly recommend you to listen to the audiobook narrated by Simon Vance because he did a good job.
The moral of my review is I loved everything about it ❤️
Incredibly poetic and simple
The moral of my review is I loved everything about it ❤️
Incredibly poetic and simple
December 26, 2022
I finally got to read this book thanks to hoopla! I really think this book is special. It holds a very special place in my heart and mind.
There are so many things both big and small, hard and easy, scary and exciting that life throws at us from the time we are born until the day we finally take our last breath that we as human beings don't always understand. They can be both upsetting and marvelous. It depends on how you look at it. In other words, how one holds the information.
To me, I feel like life throws things at us for a reason and sometimes those reasons we can't understand but other times we understand completely. Looking on the bright side of the things can be extremely difficult at times but really a person should or shouldn't, that's up to you!
Life is short and it's not always a handful of daisy's, it could be cockroaches😉 but that doesn't mean it's truly bad, it just depends on what you take from life's experiences. What you take from it all and what you leave in it's wake.
Stay positive my friends and look at the world in a better lens than you did the day before.
There are so many things both big and small, hard and easy, scary and exciting that life throws at us from the time we are born until the day we finally take our last breath that we as human beings don't always understand. They can be both upsetting and marvelous. It depends on how you look at it. In other words, how one holds the information.
To me, I feel like life throws things at us for a reason and sometimes those reasons we can't understand but other times we understand completely. Looking on the bright side of the things can be extremely difficult at times but really a person should or shouldn't, that's up to you!
Life is short and it's not always a handful of daisy's, it could be cockroaches😉 but that doesn't mean it's truly bad, it just depends on what you take from life's experiences. What you take from it all and what you leave in it's wake.
Stay positive my friends and look at the world in a better lens than you did the day before.
November 12, 2022
The audiobook is a whole other world and experience. Truely inspiring.
September 17, 2023
There are some books that are meant for specific periods in your life. This is one of them for where I am in my life. I didn’t even choose this book. My book club did. The book provided answers to the incessant questions that have overwhelmed me for the past months.
August 7, 2025
Do you ever read a book and think ‘wow my ex would have thought this was really deep’ (derogatory)
April 8, 2021
I still won't hold a cockroach myself but this is a very good reminder about what things we need to give a sh*t about. It's easy to understand but will take a lot of practice to execute. It's a very short read but I chose to read a few pages a day to savor the lessons.
December 21, 2023
A wonderfully meditative exploration of where our beliefs come from, how they influence you and how to free yourself from the suffering they cause. It definitely left me thinking about what my personal cockroaches are.
February 8, 2025
The cool thing about libraries is you can barrow a random book that could end up changing your perspective on life. If you have a hour to spare, this audiobook is so incredible and the story challenges you to identify cognitive distortions and leaned beliefs in a very simple way. I think I’m going to try to read this once a year to keep up with my own stories and how they affect me. 100000/10
October 28, 2025
the audiobook experience was truely something else. this struck quite a few cords with me and by the end i was deeply emotional. it felt like a kids book written for adults (in the best way), and just such a huge reminder that perspective is everything. that the stories we tell ourselves time and time again aren’t necessarily the truth, or they don’t have to be. especially when we shape our perspectives and beliefs around negative experiences or things that have been said to us. to question these beliefs and perspectives. to look outward and also inward with childlike joy and wonder, to be kinder and to love more freely. i feel like i could ramble about this for a while, maybe it wasn’t that deep but it felt deep to me lol. i think i’ll come back to this time and time again.
March 1, 2025
Audio.
What did the library recommend to me? I like the message of the story about reframing our mindset from what we’ve known and established as fact. Repetitive though. Kind of felt like someone high on drugs going on about change and finding light and meaning.
The epilogue really cemented that new-age youth minister feel though…as well as the sound design, what is this traveling into a new dawn music?
Good message but culty creep chic.
What did the library recommend to me? I like the message of the story about reframing our mindset from what we’ve known and established as fact. Repetitive though. Kind of felt like someone high on drugs going on about change and finding light and meaning.
The epilogue really cemented that new-age youth minister feel though…as well as the sound design, what is this traveling into a new dawn music?
Good message but culty creep chic.
December 22, 2021
This book about a boy looking at a cockroach through a new lens was strangely, EXACTLY the book I needed to read right now.
Honestly just a very short, easy to read and easy to comprehend book on how much of our reality is self constructed, and how that can also be deconstructed, for better or worse.
Side note- illustrations are incredible!
Honestly just a very short, easy to read and easy to comprehend book on how much of our reality is self constructed, and how that can also be deconstructed, for better or worse.
Side note- illustrations are incredible!
October 2, 2025
Cheesy but simple and sweet, i teared up to the audiobook doing laundry 😭
Good reminder about how perceptions form our realities. Good reminder to also look at things with compassion and curiosity - choosing how go hold them.
Audiobook’s snippets to the past feel like the scene from ratatouille when the food critic tries the dish and has the flashback to being a young boy😭
Good reminder about how perceptions form our realities. Good reminder to also look at things with compassion and curiosity - choosing how go hold them.
Audiobook’s snippets to the past feel like the scene from ratatouille when the food critic tries the dish and has the flashback to being a young boy😭
August 22, 2022
I truly am not sure why this book is so highly rated. To me it was not just too basic but also a drain on money. Just half a page of Gita could have brought more wisdom to any one reading it. Skip.
July 26, 2023
perfect little book to make you change your mindset on life & situations we’re faced with. I’m a huge fan of life & this reminded me of that.
February 13, 2025
includes some really great parables/reminders for life. still not holding a cockroach though.
November 18, 2025
audiobook is gorgeous. a simple pleasure to listen to
July 9, 2024
This book is a delightful read with a wonderful message! I think a lot of people would benefit from reading this little tale — it imparts a wisdom that can make a difference in our world today. I encourage everyone to read it. We can all learn "how to hold a cockroach"
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October 27, 2025"There is just wonder and awareness..."
Wow, my mom really struck a chord with this recommendation. I am so easily taken by writing that can take complex ideas and distill it down into simple stories. *The Little Prince*, *Siddhartha*, and *The Prophet* are my prime examples of this -- but *How To Hold a Cockroach* goes even further somehow. The ultimate thesis of the book is identical to the ancient Greek concept of epoché: the suspension of judgement, be it about knowledge or morality or anything else.
This is an idea that I've played with over the years as an attempted antidote to my chronic over-rationalization, but you can see how there's some paradox there; the search still lives on. You can't rationalize your way out of rationalization. Instead, what epoché really means is to simply hold the ideas before absorbing them, and this book explores this idea through the metaphor of the cockroach.
Learn how to hold something that might initially make you uncomfortable, and perhaps you'll realize you had no reason to be uncomfortable at all. It's an idea that can be applied to everything through the lens of everyone. Beautiful.
Wow, my mom really struck a chord with this recommendation. I am so easily taken by writing that can take complex ideas and distill it down into simple stories. *The Little Prince*, *Siddhartha*, and *The Prophet* are my prime examples of this -- but *How To Hold a Cockroach* goes even further somehow. The ultimate thesis of the book is identical to the ancient Greek concept of epoché: the suspension of judgement, be it about knowledge or morality or anything else.
This is an idea that I've played with over the years as an attempted antidote to my chronic over-rationalization, but you can see how there's some paradox there; the search still lives on. You can't rationalize your way out of rationalization. Instead, what epoché really means is to simply hold the ideas before absorbing them, and this book explores this idea through the metaphor of the cockroach.
Learn how to hold something that might initially make you uncomfortable, and perhaps you'll realize you had no reason to be uncomfortable at all. It's an idea that can be applied to everything through the lens of everyone. Beautiful.
October 29, 2025
Very wholesome book with insightful reminders about life!
August 31, 2021
This is a heartfelt story about a boy bound to the past and resenting the future. It reads like a children’s book for adults. It is an experience reading the book illustrated by Allie Daigle. I would encourage others to get the largest copy with full color illustrations. I bought the paperback. It was still neat to see all of Daigle’s illustrations in black and white, nonetheless.
The author, Matthew Maxwell, artfully crafts a narrative about a boy who suffers, while some how challenging defeatist thinking and shattering our desire to know a la Buddhist ideas and Eastern Philosophy. The author does not get preachy with this. It’s a bit more subtle. There are lots of examples of how curiosity yields greater positivity. However, this is not so much a book about positive thinking. I found my own resistance arising in witnessing the main character go through his struggles. Some of his story is hard to take, much like life, but the messages along the way have helped me challenge my own illogical thinking and beliefs some. This is a great book for those in the dark night of the soul or anyone who is growth-oriented and would like to reflect on their own inner demons some.
The author, Matthew Maxwell, artfully crafts a narrative about a boy who suffers, while some how challenging defeatist thinking and shattering our desire to know a la Buddhist ideas and Eastern Philosophy. The author does not get preachy with this. It’s a bit more subtle. There are lots of examples of how curiosity yields greater positivity. However, this is not so much a book about positive thinking. I found my own resistance arising in witnessing the main character go through his struggles. Some of his story is hard to take, much like life, but the messages along the way have helped me challenge my own illogical thinking and beliefs some. This is a great book for those in the dark night of the soul or anyone who is growth-oriented and would like to reflect on their own inner demons some.
October 1, 2025
this book is very short but very beautiful and powerful.
applicable to all ages & should be part of any school curriculum imo
applicable to all ages & should be part of any school curriculum imo
March 4, 2025
“Maybe I’m not just stuck in traffic, he thought. I’m stuck in all of these stories, too.”
😭 thank you nyp book club and aashu for bringing this book into my life. going through a really tough time currently, and this book truly altered my brain chemistry. every time something hit too close to home, my chest was flooded with this weird feeling - perhaps understanding? perhaps i’m finally being seen? not sure.
simple and delightful - how a self help book should be! everyone should read this :)
😭 thank you nyp book club and aashu for bringing this book into my life. going through a really tough time currently, and this book truly altered my brain chemistry. every time something hit too close to home, my chest was flooded with this weird feeling - perhaps understanding? perhaps i’m finally being seen? not sure.
simple and delightful - how a self help book should be! everyone should read this :)
May 6, 2025
Lovely little book that teaches and encourages you to change your perspective. Looking at the world around us, the daily encounters that stick with us in a negative light and challenging just how we perceive such things.
A bit repetitive but it makes a point, beautiful read - makes you think!
A bit repetitive but it makes a point, beautiful read - makes you think!
December 27, 2022
A lovely collection of parables rife with metaphors for our consideration as we are asked to examine how we live and move through various stages in our lives.
The audio book was lovely!
The audio book was lovely!
October 6, 2024
Did not expect such a short book to be this meaningful and beautiful.. still gonna road rage tho but an amazing perspective on the situations we all face in life
February 3, 2025
Cute concept, just wasn’t what I was expecting. I am also already painfully self aware so didn’t do much LOL (forced Haley to read with me, literally read it in 30 minutes)
February 3, 2025
To whoever recommended this book—thank you! It was so good. I even shed a few tears and immediately told my therapist to read it. 😂
Highly recommend! I’m not a big reader (more of an audiobook girl—attention span of a gnat 🪰), but at around 100 short pages, this was a quick yet deeply meaningful read. 🩷
Highly recommend! I’m not a big reader (more of an audiobook girl—attention span of a gnat 🪰), but at around 100 short pages, this was a quick yet deeply meaningful read. 🩷
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 1, 2025
I listened to the audio this morning, a very short but extremely impactful message. perception shapes your reality and your life. break free from the stories you tell yourself!! i will be revisiting this story <3
Displaying 1 - 30 of 494 reviews