“I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness—and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine.”—Anne Lamott
“Strangers in Their Own Land” by Arlie Russell Hochschild
“I have been foisting this on everyone since the election. A famed sociologist from Berkeley spends months visiting the Louisiana Bayou and getting to know the people who live there—their values, problems, minds, hearts, lives, and dreams. What they tell us in their conversations and how Hochschild changes by listening to them give me hope for our country.”
“Happy All the Time” by Laurie Colwin
“This is a beautiful, hilarious, big-hearted novel about four really good, slightly odd mixed-up people (like us) as they form couples: shy, worried, and brave. I have given away THOUSANDS of copies.”
“Praying for Sheetrock” by Melissa Fay Greene
“This is one of my favorite nonfiction books ever. It’s about a small backwoods county in Georgia in the 1970s struggling to be included in the progress for civil rights and about the idealists who lead the cause against entrenched racism. It’s a story that reads like a novel, filled with eccentrics and ordinary folks. Lovely in every way. If you read it, you will owe me forever.”
“The Illustrated Rumi” by Jelaluddin Rumi
“I love Rumi so much. I can open this book to any page, read any one of his poems, study any one of the illustrations, and feel spiritually rejuvenated—or at least a little less cranky and self-obsessed.”
“Women Food and God” by Geneen Roth
“This is the most profound and helpful book on healing from the tiny, tiny, tiny issues around eating and body issues that some of us have had for, oh, most of our lives. Charming, wise, funny, and deep.”
Via Radical Reads
What an interesting list. I've printed it (the sure way that I will look at it again). after I finish with some books already in the queue. I am now finishing the gorgeous Niall Williams (Irish) novel History of the Rain. Anyone here read it? A young woman telling the story of her family (and really of Ireland) and referencing books and poems. It just takes my breath away.
Laurie Colwin....gone much too soon.
I keep old Gourmet magazines if they include her columns.
Otherwise: HOMECOOKING I and II