DON'T PANIC - Nearly Everything is Better Than You Think

Cassandra Wilkinson did a lot of reading for this book. References at the end take 20 pages out of total 200. The references are a strong part of this book. This sentence on page 30:

Spending time in stimulating company has been shown to develop our neural pathways [...]

has lead me to A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain by John Ratey, which I need to read one day.

Cassandra gives many examples of fear-mongering and then cites research that shows the opposite. She discusses happiness, family, society, fertility rate, economy, globalisation, war on terror, fashion, politics and other everyday news topics. All in Australian and international context. 

The message stated in the title is clear and powerful: don't worry, this is not the end of world. When you live in fear you are proven to make wrong decisions. When you have faith in other people, progress is made.