“There is beauty calling to us everyday, every hour, but we are rarely in a position to listen....If we don’t silence ourselves--if our mind, our body, are full of noise--then we can’t hear beauty’s call.” So begins this remarkable and accessible book about how to really live the moments that are given to us. If you’re like me, you have an internal radio that never shuts off, and it’s not healthy--to keep consuming our own thoughts like a cow chewing its own cud. According to the author, … [Read more...] about Silence

I HEART this book.  You know those books that as you read them you have to pause and look up to process the beauty or poignancy of what you've just read?  This is such a book.  It's filled with her essays on how nature and books saved her life, her admiration of Whitman, Wordsworth, and Poe, and her beautiful observations of everyday experiences told in breathtaking beauty and insight. … [Read more...] about Upstream

I read this almost in a day.  Definitely a mind-blowing, page-turning thriller.  It explores the idea of how one decision, one thought, one act can change the trajectory of one's life.  What if you could go back in time and reverse your destiny? … [Read more...] about Dark Matter

Loved this! Former army intelligence officer Dan Chase has lived in a small Vermont town with his two dogs for 35 years.  A widower, he's been in hiding after allegedly stealing $20 million during a mission in Libya.  He's been preparing to have to make a run for it for decades when he notices an unfamiliar car trolling his neighborhood.  This is it.  They've found him, and he's suddenly off and running, with his two wonderful dogs (don't worry--they're safe), his multiple identities (think … [Read more...] about The Old Man

What does a hospice chaplain really do? In her touching and inspiring new book, On Living, Kerry Egan, shares incredible stories of people she has listened to and comforted as they confronted their own deaths. Trust me, this is not a downer--just the opposite. Egan says of her own job: “Hospice chaplains are sort of the opposite of storytellers. We’re storyholders. We listen to the stories that people believe have shaped their lives. We listen to the meaning they make of those stories.”

Like … [Read more...] about On Living

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize!

Caroline Fraser has an affection for Laura Ingalls Wilder and her Little House books.  But Fraser also is a realist and an incredible historian. She takes the reader on a remarkable page-turning journey, delving deep into the real world of life on the prairie. Of course the Ingalls, Pa and Ma and the rest of the clan, figure prominently, culminating in Laura’s own family and life beyond the Little House books. Full of mind-numbing stories of hardship, Fraser … [Read more...] about Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Brilliant, funny, informative, eye-opening, masterful….these are just some of the adjectives I would apply to this WOW of a book.  Noah grew up in South Africa.  He was born about five years before Apartheid officially ended.  His a storyteller extraordinaire!  More importantly, his own experiences captured so vividly in this memoir will forever enlighten your understanding of Apartheid, leave you marveling at the selflessness of his mother, and make you love Trevor Noah forever. … [Read more...] about Born a Crime

Rosling, a Swedish statistician and academic who died last year, wrote the book with his son and daughter-in-law. The book delves into human tendency to incorrectly guess global trends and lays out several human instincts that cause such a distortion in perspective.

“Although I think everyone should read it,” Bill Gates writes, “it has especially useful insights for anyone who’s making the leap out of college and into the next phase of life.”

Gates concludes by sharing a quote from Rosling … [Read more...] about Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World

Gregory Boyle is a Jesuit priest who for the past 30 years has been running Homeboy Industries in L.A., a social enterprise that has helped thousands and thousands of gang members get job training and, more importantly, love and acceptance. His stories and take on life left me enthralled. Boy, do you want to meet this man and hear him speak!  He writes, “We want to live our lives ‘out loud’—for all the world to see—not with the volume cranked high but with our lives speaking for themselves.  … [Read more...] about Barking to the Choir