It’s funny… about mid-way through the month, I thought I wasn’t going to have much to share with you this time. I’d only read the Jane Green novel and pieces of Caroline Myss’ book. And then there was a reading explosion! Most of these are quick reads, so don’t be too impressed. 🙂
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Becoming Like God: Our Ultimate Destiny by Michael Berg
This book gives readers the methodology to destroy ego, begin transformative sharing, and create a path to realize their true, godlike nature. It’s a quick read and a good modern-day explanation of Kabbalah. One main issue I had with it… huge sections of the text are in hot pink capital letters. What could the reason for that possibly be?
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A Little Book About Something Much Bigger: The Gift of a Spiritual Practice by Victoria Cryder, Lois Hughes
Jodi Chapman recommended this little e-book as being “sweet, profound, loving, joyful, spiritual, and amazing.” How could I NOT read this? It’s about maintaining that internal connection to authentic self and Spirit that makes the heart sing. It explores how using prayer, meditation, gratitude, intentions and the law of attraction can move you into an abundant, joyous and authentic life.
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A Million Little Ways, A: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live
by Emily Freeman
“A Million Little Ways” invites anyone to look at their lives differently by approaching their critics, their jobs, and the kids around their table the same way an artist approaches the canvas–with wonder, bravery, and hope. In her gentle, compelling style, Emily Freeman encourages readers to turn down the volume on their inner critic and move into the world with the courage to be who they most deeply are. She invites regular people to see the artistic potential in words, gestures, attitudes, and relationships. Readers will discover the art in a quiet word, a hot dinner, a made bed, a grace-filled glance, and a million other ways of showing God to the world through the simple human acts of listening, waiting, creating, and showing up.
“We are not trying to become a better version of ourselves. Instead, we begin to uncover the person whom we have forgotten we already are.”
Please read Wednesday’s blog post where I bared my heart and soul to you…
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Tempting Fate by Jane Green. I didn’t realize this book was just published days ago! I requested it from the library long ago, so I guess I got it first. Excellent read. My only two complaints: 1) the plot was slightly predictable and 2) I stayed up, teary-eyed, into the wee hours of the morning because I couldn’t put it down.
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Entering the Castle: Finding the Inner Path to God and Your Soul’s Purpose by Caroline Myss. Myss uses Teresa of Ávila’s vision of the soul as a beautiful crystal castle with many mansions as a template for guiding the reader on a journey to meet different aspects of your self. From Amazon: “Seven stages of intense practices and methods of spiritual inquiry develop your personal powers of prayer, contemplation, and intuition, which in turn reinforce your interior castle and build a soul of strength and stamina.With stories and inspiration from mystics of all traditions, Entering the Castle is a comprehensive guide for the journey of your life — a journey into the center of your soul.”
I have to admit that this book requires a huge commitment. I made it about halfway through. The idea is to visualize the process through the various rooms of yourself, and I needed more than the 3 weeks that the library wanted me to have in order to do it properly.
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Devotion: A Memoir
by Dani Shapiro. “We were complicated by our history, by the religion of our ancestors. There was beauty and wisdom and even solace in that. I no longer felt that I had to embrace it all — nor did I feel that I had to run away. I could take the bits and pieces that made sense to me, and incorporate them into the larger patchwork of our lives.”
“My various rituals – the yoga, meditation, thinking, reading, Torah study — these were disciplines. They had become, to some degree, habit. But it was in the space around these rituals that faith resided. It was in the emptiness, the pause between actions, the stillness when one thing was finished but the next had not yet begun. Paradoxically, this was where effort came in, because it was so hard to be empty. To pause. To be still — not leaning forward, not falling back. Steady in the present — not even waiting. Just being… Why did something that should be so effortless require so much effort?”
This book is a meditation on the meaning of life and faith. It’s a well-written, thoughtful memoir about the authors mid-life crisis and search for spirituality. I enjoyed it but it is so obvious that Shapiro’s anxiety was oozing out of the pages and into me, so I quickly read it and moved on.
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Happier than God: Turn Ordinary Life into an Extraordinary Experience
by Neale Donald Walsh
“Life was meant to be happy.” This book is about the law of attraction, adding God to the equation. Walsch writes that the ability to create your reality is an expression of God. The process really has 3 parts: the first has to do with God, the second has to do with you, and the third with you and God together.
This is a very powerful book that I would recommend to anyone wishing to experience happiness within a spiritual context!
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I am also reading an entry a day in The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have by Mark Nepo. My favorite passage from April was this one:
“We cannot live without being affected by others, but we are only real when we let truth and love shape us from within. Our want to be liked, our want to avoid conflict, our want to be understood — all these traits tease us away from taking the voice within seriously.”
Sounds kind of what I said on Wednesday on uncovering our deepest dreams.
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What have you been reading lately? And are you on Goodreads? I’d love to connect there.
Everything I’ve Ever Read (I think)
Currently Reading
More monthly book reports
(In the middle of way too many books)
