Books for the Journey & Winners

A few things I learned this week while cross-blogging with Margaret at awaytogarden.com:

It’s really fun to have a buddy.

Skype is almost as good as being there.

It’s easy to embed a video into the middle of a blog post (thank you, Margaret, for your continued tutelage!).

We are each blessed to have such committed, curious, passionate readers.

A book give-away is a pretty wonderful way to get everyone talking — to get you all introduced to each of us,  to one another, and to the books that have made a difference in all our lives. (I hope that some of Margaret’s devoted readers will subscribe here — check the box on my homepage — and become regular visitors, and that my readers will follow Margaret as well.)

The right book at the right time can feed the soul, nourish the mind, and provide us with the impetus we need to transform, grow, and pursue our dreams.

Although the details of our lives and stories differ, the themes that most resonate with me and with Margaret — nature, awareness, gratitude, finding the sacred in the ordinary, celebrating life’s small gifts and simple pleasures — resonate deeply with you, too.

So, a huge, heartfelt “Thank you!” to all who took the time to share with us your own stories of awakening, change, and transformation, along with the books and writers who most inspired you along the way.

From your more than 400 responses and comments, we’ve  generated an expansive, extraordinarily diverse reading list for life, a list ranging from fiction to philosophy, from memoir to self-help, from beloved classics like Gift from the Sea and The Prophet to best-sellers like Eat, Pray, Love and Simple Abundance, to intriguing but lesser-known titles such as SoulPancake and Ragamuffin Gospel.  Some of these books I had on shelf, so I pulled them out and snapped a photo.  Others are now on my own must-read list.

Clearly, in this give-away, we are all winners. Here, then, is our list, or rather, YOUR list.  I think we should give it a title.  How about “Books for the Journey”?  You can scroll through the titles below, or, if you want to be sure to have a copy of the whole thing in your hand the next time you head to the bookstore, you can print it out here:   Rev-2 Sheet1

It’s ten below zero in New Hampshire as I type these words.  A very good day to settle in with a good book and a cup of tea. Happy reading!  (Suzanne and Denise, congratulations, and your signed books are on their way. . .)

BOOKS FOR THE JOURNEY

Adams, Richard   —  Watership Down

Albom, Mitch  —  Tuesdays with Morrie

Ali, Ayaan Hirsi  —  Infidel

Allen, James  —  As A Man Thinketh (essay)

Atkinson, Patricia  —  The Ripening Sun

Ban Breathnach, Sarah  — Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy

Bardsley, Barney  —  A Handful of Earth

Bateson, Mary Catherine  —  Composing a Life & Peripheral Visions

Beck, Martha  —  Expecting Adam

Berry, Wendell  —  The Unsettling of America

Berry, Wendell  —  The Three-Legged House

Beston, Henry  —  The Outermost House

Birks, Tony  —  biography of the potter LUCIE RIE

Bombeck, Erma   —  The Grass Is Always Greener On The Other Side Of The Fence

Bourke, Dale Hanson  —  Embracing Your Second Calling

Braestrup, Kate  —  Here If You Need Me

Brett, Brian  —  Trauma Farm

Bridges, William  —  Transitions

Bronson, Po   —  What Should I Do With My Life?

Browning, Dominique  —   Around the House and In the Garden

Browning, Dominique  —   Slow Love

Buscaglia, Leo   —  Personhood

Byok, Ira   —  Dying Well

Byrne, Rhonda   —  The Secret

Caldwell, Gail   —  Let’s Take the Long Way Home

Cameron, Julia   —  Floor Sample

Capek, Karel   —  The Gardener’s Year

Cary, Joyce   —  To Be a Pilgrim & The Horse’s Mouth

Carpenter, Novella  —   Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer

Cather, Willa   —  My Antonia

Chodron, Pema  —   The Places That Scare You

Chopra, Deepak  —   The Third Jesus

Chotzinoff, Robin  —   People with Dirty Hands

Coelho, Paul   —  The Alchemist

Colon, Suzanne  —  Cherries in Winter

Corrigan, Kelly  —   The Middle Place

Cunningham, Elizabeth  —   Return of the Goddess

Davidson, Robyn  —   Tracks: A Woman’s Solo Trek Across 1,700 Miles of Australian

Dederer, Claire  —   Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses

Desserich, Keith and Brooke  —   Notes Left Behind

Didion, Joan  —   The Year of Magical Thinking

Dillard, Annie   —   Holy the Firm

Dillard, Annie  —   Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Dominguez, Joe and Robin, Vicki  —   Your Money or Your Life

Doerr, Anthony   —  Four Seasons in Rome

Dooley, Mike   —  Infinite Possibilities

Dyer, Wayne  —   Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life & The Power of  Intention

Eggers, Dave  —   A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Gates, Rolf and Kenison, Katrina  —   Meditations from the Mat: Daily Reflections on the Path of Yoga

Gawain, Shakti  —   Living in the Light

Gibran, Kahlil  —   The Prophet

Gilbert, Elizabeth  —   Eat, Pray, Love

Gilman, Dorothy  —  A New Kind of Country

Giono, Jean  —   The Man Who Planted Trees

Goudge, Elizabeth  —  The Dean’s Watch

Hanh, Thich Nat  —   Peace is Every Step

Hamilton, Jane  —   The Book of Ruth

Handelsman, Judith  —   Growing Myself: A Spiritual Journey Through Gardening

Harder, Arlene  —   Letting Go of Our Adult Children

Harding, Paul  —   Tinkers

Haupt, Lyanda Lynn  —   Crow Planet

Hepburn, Katherine  —   Me

Hesse, Herman  —   Siddhartha

Hoff, Benjamin  —   The Tao of Pooh

Hubbell, Sue  —   A Country Year

Janzen, Rhoda  —   Mennonite in a Little Black Dress

Jaworski, Joseph  —  Synchronicity

Johnson, Jan  —  When the Soul Listens

Johnson, Wendy  —   Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate

Katz, Jon  —   A Dog Year

Kenison, Katrina  —   Mitten Strings for God

Kenison, Katrina  —   The Gift of an Ordinary Day

Kephart, Beth’s  —  Ghosts in the Garden

Kessler, Brad  —  Goat Song

Kidd, Sue Monk  —   When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions

Kidd, Sue Monk and Ann Taylor Kidd  —   Traveling with Pomegranates

Kilmer-Purcell, Josh  —  Bucolic Plague

Kimball, Kristin  —  The Dirty Life

Kingsolver, Barbara  —  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Knapp, Caroline  —   Pack of Two

Koller, Alice  —   An Unknown Woman

Koller, Alice  —   The Stations of Solitude

Kotzwinkle, William  —   The Bear Went Over the Mountain

Krakauer, Jon   —   Into the Wild

Krasnow, Iris  —   Surrendering to Marriage, Surrendering to Motherhood, Surrendering to Yourself

Krauss, Nicole  —   A History of Love

Kunitz, Stanley  —   The Wild Braid

L’Engle, Madeleine  —   Two-Part Invention & The Crosswick Trilogy

Lamott, Anne  —   Operating Instructions

Lamott, Anne  —   Bird by Bird

Lamott, Anne  —   Grace, Eventually

Laskas, Jeanne Marie  —   Fifty Acres and a Poodle

Lebovitz, David  —   The Sweet Life In Paris

LeClaire, Anne   —  Listening Below the Noise

Lee, Harper  —   To Kill a Mockingbird

Leopold, Aldo  —   Sand Country Almanac

Lesser, Elizabeth  —   Broken Open

Lewis, C. S.  —   Surprised By Joy

Lindbergh, Anne Morrow  —   Gift From The Sea

Linnea, Ann  —   Deep Water Passage

Lippi, Roseanna  —   Homestead

Lipsky, Laura Vandernoot  —   Trauma Stewardship

Littauer, Florence  —   Personality Profiles

Lobenstine, Margaret  —   The Renaissance Soul

London, Jack  —   Call of the Wild

Loomis, Susan Hermann  —   On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town

Lucado, Max  —   Next Door Savior

Madson, Patricia Ryan  —   Improv Wisdom

Manion, Jeff  —   The Land Between

Manning, Brennan —   Ragamuffin Gospel

Mayle, Peter  —   A Year in Provence

Merullo, Roland  —   Breakfast with Buddha

Moran, Victoria  —   Living a Charmed Life

Miller, Karen Maezen  —   Hand Wash Cold

Mitchell, John Hanson  —   The Wildest Place on Earth

Morgan, Marlo  —   Mutant Message Down Under

Munson, Laura  —   This is Not the Story You Think It Is

Nearing, Helen & Scott  —   The Good Life

Nearing, Helen & Scott  —   Loving and Leaving the Good Life

Nepo, Mark  —   The Book of Awakening

Newell, Patrice  —   The Olive Grove

Norris, Kathleen  —   Amazing Grace & Cloister Walk

Norris, Kathleen  —   Dakota

O’Reilly, Mary Rose  —   The Barn at the End of the World

Palmer, Parker  —   Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

Pausch, Randy  —   The Last Lecture

Peacock, Nancy  —   A Broom of One’s Own

Peck, Caitlin  —   Bread Body Spirit

Pipher, Mary  —   Seeking Peace

Powers, John  —   Do Black-Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?

Proulx, Annie  —   The Shipping News

Quindlen, Anna  —   Being Perfect

Radish, Kris  —   Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral

Raeburn, Nancy  —   Mykonos: A Memoir

Raskin, Andy  —   Ramen King and I

Ray, Janisse  —   Ecology of a Cracker Childhood (The World as Home)

Rich, Louise Dickinson  —  We Took to the Woods

Roberts, Monty  —   The Man Who Listens to Horses

Rosenblatt, Roger  —   Making Toast

Rubin, Gretchen  —  The Happiness Project

Ruoff, Fr. Lou  —   For Give: Stories of Reconciliation

Rupp, Joyce  —   Open the Door

Sanford, Matthew  —   Waking

Schwartz, Dr. David  —   The Magic of Thinking Big

Scott-James, Anne  —   Gardening Letters to My Daughter

Shapiro, Dani  —   Devotion

Sharma, Robin  —   The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Shetterly, Caitlin  —   Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home

Skomal, Lenore  —   The Secret Life of Girlfriends (quotes and affirmations)

Smith, Betty  —   A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Stearns, Richard  —   The Hole in our Gospel

Stein, Sara  —   Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards

Stewart, Amy  —   From The Ground Up: The Story Of A First Garden

Stewart, Martha  —   The Martha Rules

Stewart, Rory  —   The Places in Between

Stovall, Jim  —   The Ultimate Gift

Strawbridge, Dick and James  —   Self Sufficiency for the 21st Century

Strout, Elizabeth   —  Olive Kittredge

Swift, Vivian  —   When Wanderers Cease to Roam

Taylor, Barbara Brown  —   An Altar in the World

Taylor, Barbara Brown  —   Leaving Church

The Brothers Grimm  —   Grimms’ Fairy Tales

Thomas, Susan  —   Farmgirl Fare (blog)

Toibin, Colm  —   Brooklyn

Tolle, Eckhart  —   A New Earth

VanZant, Iyanla  —   Faith in the Valley

Verghese, Abraham  —   Cutting for Stone

Walls, Jeanette  —   The Glass Castle

Waters, Alice  —   Edible Garden

Weiner, Jennifer  —   Good in Bed

Wharton, Edith  —   Italian Villas and Their Gardens

Wiesel, Elie  —   Night

Wilkinson, Bruce  —   The Dream Giver

Williams, Bunny  —   An Affair with a House

Wilson, Rainn  —   SoulPancake

Woginrich, Jenna  —   Made From Scratch

Wood, Amy  —   Life Your Way: Refresh Your Approach to Success and Breathe Easier in a Fast-Paced World

Woolf, Virginia  —   A Room of One’s Own

Yancey, Philip  —   Soul Survivor

Young, William  —   The Shack

Zaslow, Jeffrey  —   The Girls from Ames