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
Phyllis says
Finding this site has truly been a gift to me. I have read a few of the books on your list and “felt” the written words. I am on my way out to buy “Mitten Strings of God” as well as “The Gift of an Ordinary Day”….I can not wait!! Thank you for sharing and caring and reaching out so that others may find peace in themselves and with their lives. What an amazing gift you have and what an even more amazing gift that you are giving to so many others. Thank you, THANK you and Thank YOU =)
Katrina Kenison says
Phyllis, I’m glad you’re here! As you can see from last week’s post, you’re in the company of book lovers, thoughtful folk, caring souls. I can’t wait to read some of the books on this list.
Elizabeth@Life in Pencil says
Thanks for the list! I had been revisiting the site and jotting down the titles as people added them, but this is much more handy. Having co-blogged with a friend for a year and a half, I can attest to how fun it is to share the journey with someone else!
Katrina Kenison says
Yes! I’m really glad you’re carrying on at Life in Pencil, but you must miss your partner. So much fun to have some one to bounce ideas around with, and as you say, to share the journey.
Laura K. says
Thank you so much for sharing your experiences through your book. I just finished “reading” it on my iPod, and I miss it already.
Thank goodness you have a blog, so I can still read about your thoughts on life once in awhile.
K says
Thank you for the list.Here I was each day checking the site to see the new responses and suggestions. How thoughtful of you to make a list for us. Some titles I have had on my bookshelf and will be reading for the first time and some are entirely new tome. It is like a breathe of fresh air to have a list of well recommended reads. May I add Hand Wash Cold by Karen Maezen Miller which I learned of on your site. Thank you, Katrina for the network you have created here. You are the author I would someday like to meet.
Becky says
Awesome list. Thanks for this!
Clare says
What a great list!I am set for a year! 🙂
Lou Anne Sexton says
I too jotted down so many of the recommended books–thanks for compiling the whole list and for the fabulous photo that makes me want to abandon my deadlines and curl up with a book–early to bed!
Lisa Coughlin says
Thank you for compiling this list, Katrina–and for everyone who contributed titles.
Privilege of Parenting says
What a fantastic list—and so kind of you to compile it… reminding me of some of my favorites, inviting me to make new discoveries, affirming some greater groupness in which we participate with slowly widening consciousness and deepening gratitude. Namaste
Kim Merritt says
What a wonderful list – some oldies and some goodies, and some new titles I can’t wait to take a look at. Thank you for taking the time to send them our way.
Stay warm!
Kim
Beth Kephart says
Katrina: Wow.
jennifer says
I loved your thoughts on the gift of an ordinary day. So sad, I treasure every minute with my 9 yr old son and 5 yr old daughter. I already know that it will pass too quickly.