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I’ve just updated my recommended reading list and thought I might include it as a post. My hope is that you will comment, suggesting books I’ve overlooked or some of your favorites that you would like to share.
Here is an updated (but not comprehensive list) of books I have found to be enriching and well written:
Literary/Mainstream Fiction: Sue Monk Kidd: The Secret Life of Bees; Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible; John Steinbeck: East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath; Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; J.D. Salinger: Catcher in the Rye; F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby; Lisa Genoa: Still Alice; Isabel Allende: Island Beneath the Sea; Chris Cleave: Little Bee; Lisa See: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan;
Non Fiction and Memoir: Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor: Traveling with Pomegranates; Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love; Jeanette Walls: The Glass Castle; Bill O’Reilly: A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity; Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie
Spirituality and Inspirational: The Holy Bible (TNIV); Francis Chan: Forgotten God–Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit; Rabbi David Cooper: God is a Verb; St. John of the Cross: The Dark Night of the Soul; Gerald May: The Dark Night of the Soul
Poets by Author: Mary Oliver, Stanley Kunitz, Rumi, Jane Kenyon, Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Ted Kooser, T.S. Eliot, e.e.cummings, Pablo Neruda, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Ranier Maria Rilke, Langston Hughs, Matsuo Basho, Thomas Merton
Books about Writing: Anne Lamont: Bird by Bird; Heather Sellers: Page by Page; The Writer’s Digest Series: Write Great Fiction; Natalie Goldberg: Writing Down the Bones
Revised 3/31/11
Victoria C. Slotto, Author 
[…] I’ve just updated my recommended reading list and thought I might include it as a post. My hope is that you will comment, suggesting books I’ve overlooked or some of your favorites that you would like to share. Here is an updated.. … Read More […]
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So many wonderful additions here…many of my favorites! Guess I’ll be updating again.
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i read only fictions, thats why i am so much grateful to you for your helping posts. 🙂
i rarely read non-fiction stories.
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I gave you a couple of links in my response. Might go into spam.
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Pretty much ditto. I’d add Pearl Buck, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and Colette to the first group.
Definately ditto Amy.
ditto Spirituality- plus: Brother David Stendle-Rast –
Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey through the Hours of the Day
and
Belonging to the Universe w/Frijof Capra
http://www.gratefulness.org/brotherdavid/index.htm
Advice on Dying, the Dalai Lama
The Issue at Hand by Gil Fronsdal
http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/the-issue-at-hand/
Please Call Me By My Right Name, Thich Nhat Han
And
Writing would add:
A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver and
Nine Gates, Engering the Mind of Poetry by Jane Hirshfield
would add to nonfiction/memoir
Steinbeck’s Journal of a Novel: the East of Eden Letters
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I’ve read several on your list. So many books, so little time!
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Thank you for the list. I see the Bible is on it. TNIV – Would that be Today’s New International Version? I like to read various versions. When I use a search engine, I must use KJV, because I know it best. Blessings to you, Victoria…
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Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor: Traveling with Pomegranates; … I haven’t read that book, you asked on my blog. I found it online and I’ve ordered it, will have it in 20 days 🙂 Thanks for the recommendation Victoria!
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I see so many familiar favourites of mine, Victoria. One I would add (there are more, I know, but this one is hopping out of my head): Women Who Run With the Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Estes.
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thank you for putting together such a great list!
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Thanks for that interesting list of books!
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