These favorites tend to be titles I find myself recommending to others for one reason or another. Or they are recent reads that I’m excited to share. For titles about death and dying, visit my page about resources on end-of-life matters.
On Writing and Creativity
Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life
This is the text I recommend most often for people who want to write stories about their own life. It is entertaining, irreverent and full of ideas to get started. The first line: The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King
King’s book is a memoir but one that lets the reader in on the way he goes about his own writing process; it is definitely applicable for genres outside of the horror genre for which he is best known. Line from the Second Forward: This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don’t understand very much about what they do…
If You Want to Write, Brenda Ueland.
Reading Ueland is like carrying around a kind, experienced, honest mentor who completely believes in you and knows you can do it. Her classic writing text has informed both my teaching and my writing.
From the first chapter: Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his true self and not from the self he things he should be.
A Swim in a Pond in The Rain: In Which Four Russians Give A Master Class on Writing, Reading, and Life
The first three books I would suggest for anyone at any stage of their writing journey. They tend to appeal to beginners and experienced writers alike. This is more for someone who maybe is considering taking an MFA fiction writing class. Not because the instruction is difficult, but because Saunders is very detailed about these stories–both the reading and the writing of them. I was captivated, but I enjoy Russian literature and writing is my thing.
The first lines: Years ago, on the phone with Bill Buford, then fiction editor of The New Yorker, enduring a series of painful edits, feeling a little insecure, I went fishing for a compliment: “but what do you like about the story?” I whined. This was a long pause at the other end. And Bill said this: “Well, I read a line. And I like it…enough to read the next.”
The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, Julia Cameron
Not everyone connects with the spiritual language Cameron uses, but this book has helped many people to remove obstacles to living a more creative life. I first went through the course with a group of friends in the mid 1990s. Soon after, I began writing fairly regularly for a number of magazines, and, more importantly, I began treating creativity as a central part of my wellbeing. Cameron’s book offers a process for moving from wanting to create to practicing creativity on a regular basis.
A line from the Introduction: While there is no quick fix for instant, pain-free creativity, creative recovery (or discovery) is teachable, trackable, spiritual process.
Books Read as Sacred Texts
These are books that I return to for spiritual grounding
New and Selected Poems (V. 1), Mary Oliver. A poet handed me a copy of this book in about 1994 and it continues to be a regular in my basket of meditation books. New and Selected includes some of Oliver’s most well-known poems, “Wild Geese,” and “The Journey.” And also a handful from each of her early books that speak to me.
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. I’ve listened to this one on audio and read it on the page and written papers about it for my chaplaincy program and I look forward to reading it again. It reminds me that a more integrated way of living is possible.
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, John O’Donohue. One of the reasons this book has stayed with me for so long is that it pays homage to a form of friendship that has been so important throughout my life but is rarely named in such clear terms. It is also beautifully written. You can find a little bit more about Donohue’s view of spirituality of friendship in Maria Popova’s, The Marginalian.
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times, Pema Chödrön.
Poetry
The Way it Is, William Stafford (poetry)
Otherwise, Jane Kenyon (poetry)
Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
When the Light Was Subdued Our Songs Came Through, Edited by Joy Harjo (poetry)
Memoir
Heavy, by Kiese Laymon (memoir)
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (memoir)
Educated, Tara Westover (memoir)
Becoming, Michelle Obama (memoir)
Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl (nonfiction)x4
Anam Cara, John O’Donohue (nonfiction)
Beloved, Toni Morrison (fiction)
Just This, Richard Rohr (essays)
History and Culture
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin (nonfiction)
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, Isabelle Wilkerson
A Paradise Built In Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster, Rebecca Solnit
The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander
How to Be and Antiracist: Ibram X. Kendi
Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell
Natural History
Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
Tides, by Jonathan White
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabelle Wilkerson
Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli (fiction)
Becoming, Michelle Obama (memoir)
Home Made, Liz Hauck (memoir)
Fiction
The People of the Whale, Linda Hogan
The Moon Bamboo, Thich Nhat Hanh
Murmer of Bees, Sofía Segovia
House of Broken Angels, Luis Alberto Urrea
The Calculating Stars, Mary Robinette Kowal
The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Book of Longing, Sue Monk Kidd
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood
There, There, Tommy Orange
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
The Song of Achilles, Madeliene Miller
Molokaí, Alan Brennert
Poetry
Dark, Sweet, Linda Hogan
An American Sunrise, Joy Harjo
The Tradition, Jericho Brown
Owls and Other Fantasies, Mary Oliver
Young Adult
The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
Turtles All the Way Down, John Green
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
Children’s Books
Cinderella Liberator, Rebecca Solnit
Enormous Smallness: A Story of E.E. Cummings, Matthew Burgess
Drawing on Walls: A story of Keith Haring, Matthew Burgess
Films and Videos about Artists and Their Art
With thanks to my UTS Art Instructor, Dr. Jennifer Awes-Freeman for introducing me to these and so much more!
Kusama Infinity: The Life and Art of Yayoi Kusama (YouTube, Also available as a rental on Prime)
Muralist Judy Baca and Social Public Art Resource Center (short YouTube clip)
Kehinde Wiley at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (YouTube, artist talk & many paintings)
Shirin Neshat, Shirin on Shirin (8 minute Youtube)
Ai Weiwei, Without Fear or Favor (Youtube of BBC Documentary)
I Love Lupe: A Roundtable Discussion with Ester Hernandez, Yolanda Lopez & Alma Lopez
Celebrating Revelations at 50, Alvin Ailey (5 minute documentary on Vimeo)
A Superhero for Generation Why, G. Willow Wilson (YouTube). This 13 minute Ted Talk about creation of Ms. Marvel for a generation that seemed “in love with despair.”
Jeong Kwan, Chef’s Table (Also available on Netflix. I had to manually turn on subtitles on this free version). Jeong Kwan is a monk in Korea who cooks for the community. Two of my favorite quotes: “Temple food is flavored with nature.” And, “The monk is mother to everyone.”