Jim's bookshelf: all en-US Fri, 30 Dec 2016 23:11:36 -0800 60 Jim's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg Eat, Pray, Love 19501
Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned thirty, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want—a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world—all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the twenty-three happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way—unexpectedly.

An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society’s ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.]]>
368 Elizabeth Gilbert 0143038419 Jim 3 3.64 2006 Eat, Pray, Love
author: Elizabeth Gilbert
name: Jim
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2006
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose]]> 76334 With his bestselling spiritual guide "The Power of Now," Eckhart Tolle inspired millions of readers to discover the freedom and joy of a life lived ?in the now.? In "A New Earth," Tolle expands on these powerful ideas to show how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world. Tolle describes how our attachment to the ego creates the dysfunction that leads to anger, jealousy, and unhappiness, and shows readers how to awaken to a new state of consciousness and follow the path to a truly fulfilling existence. "The Power of Now" was a question-and-answer handbook. "A New Earth" has been written as a traditional narrative, offering anecdotes and philosophies in a way that is accessible to all. Illuminating, enlightening, and uplifting, "A New Earth" is a profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life?and for building a better world.]]> 316 Eckhart Tolle 0452287588 Jim 4 4.15 2005 A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
author: Eckhart Tolle
name: Jim
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2005
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
When Breath Becomes Air 25899336
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a naïve medical student "possessed," as he wrote, "by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life" into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. "I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything," he wrote. "Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: 'I can't go on. I'll go on.'" When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.]]>
208 Paul Kalanithi 0812988418 Jim 4 4.41 2016 When Breath Becomes Air
author: Paul Kalanithi
name: Jim
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Alchemist 865 197 Paulo Coelho 0061122416 Jim 4 3.85 1988 The Alchemist
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Jim
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1988
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Siddhartha 52036 152 Hermann Hesse Jim 4 4.07 1922 Siddhartha
author: Hermann Hesse
name: Jim
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1922
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Prophet 2547 The Prophet, is one of the most beloved classics of our time. Published in 1923, it has been translated into more than twenty languages, and the American editions alone have sold more than nine million copies.

The Prophet is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and, above all, inspirational. Gibran’s musings are divided into twenty-eight chapters covering such sprawling topics as love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, housing, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.]]>
127 Kahlil Gibran 000100039X Jim 4 4.27 1923 The Prophet
author: Kahlil Gibran
name: Jim
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1923
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Shack 1812457
In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!]]>
248 William Paul Young 0964729237 Jim 4 3.73 2007 The Shack
author: William Paul Young
name: Jim
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life]]> 15843166 The #1 New York Times Bestseller You Are A Badass is the self-help book for people who desperately want to improve their lives but don't want to get busted doing it.

In this refreshingly entertaining how-to guide, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author and world-traveling success coach, Jen Sincero, serves up 27 bite-sized chapters full of hilariously inspiring stories, sage advice, easy exercises, and the occasional swear word. If you're ready to make some serious changes around here, You Are a Badass will help you: Identify and change the self-sabotaging beliefs and behaviors that stop you from getting what you want, blast past your fears so you can take big exciting risks, figure out how to make some damn money already, learn to love yourself and others, set big goals and reach them - it will basically show you how to create a life you totally love, and how to create it now.

By the end of You Are a Badass, you'll understand why you are how you are, how to love what you can't change, how to change what you don't love, and how to use The Force to kick some serious ass.]]>
254 Jen Sincero 0762447699 Jim 4 3.95 2013 You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
author: Jen Sincero
name: Jim
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2013
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Mere Christianity 11138 191 C.S. Lewis 0684823780 Jim 4 4.32 1952 Mere Christianity
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Jim
average rating: 4.32
book published: 1952
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living]]> 27840585 Instead of pushing for perfection

A few years ago, I found myself exhausted and isolated, my soul and body sick. I was tired of being tired, burned out on busy. And, it seemed almost everyone I talked with was in the same boat: longing for connection, meaning, depth, but settling for busy.

I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, neighbor, writer, and I know all too well that settling feeling. But over the course of the last few years, I’ve learned a way to live, marked by grace, love, rest, and play. And it’s changing everything.

Present Over Perfect is an invitation to this journey that changed my life. I’ll walk this path with you, a path away from frantic pushing and proving, and toward your essential self, the one you were created to be before you began proving and earning for your worth.

Written in Shauna’s warm and vulnerable style, this collection of essays focuses on the most important transformation in her life, and maybe yours too: leaving behind busyness and frantic living and rediscovering the person you were made to be. Present Over Perfect is a hand reaching out, pulling you free from the constant pressure to perform faster, push harder, and produce more, all while maintaining an exhausting image of perfection.

Shauna offers an honest account of what led her to begin this journey, and a compelling vision for an entirely new way to live: soaked in grace, rest, silence, simplicity, prayer, and connection with the people that matter most to us.

In these pages, you’ll be invited to consider the landscape of your own life, and what it might look like to leave behind the pressure to be perfect and begin the life-changing practice of simply being present, in the middle of the mess and the ordinariness of life.]]>
240 Shauna Niequist 0310342996 Jim 4 3.81 2016 Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living
author: Shauna Niequist
name: Jim
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2016
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Tao of Pooh 48757
Is there such thing as a Western Taoist? Benjamin Hoff says there is, and this Taoist's favorite food is honey. Through brilliant and witty dialogue with the beloved Pooh-bear and his companions, the author of this smash bestseller explains with ease and aplomb that rather than being a distant and mysterious concept, Taoism is as near and practical to us as our morning breakfast bowl.

Romp through the enchanting world of Winnie-the-Pooh while soaking up invaluable lessons on simplicity and natural living.]]>
176 Benjamin Hoff 1405204265 Jim 4 4.01 1982 The Tao of Pooh
author: Benjamin Hoff
name: Jim
average rating: 4.01
book published: 1982
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Screwtape Letters 17383917 The Screwtape Letters is the most engaging and humorous account of temptation—and triumph over it—ever written.

Now, for the first time, The Screwtape Letters is presented with its full text alongside helpful annotations provided by Lewis enthusiast and dramatist Paul McCusker. The notes include literary, theological, and biographical information to enhance Lewis's core themes and demystify complex ideas. McCusker also guides readers to concepts and references from the beloved author's other treasured volumes to deepen and enrich this timeless classic. The annotated edition is the ultimate guide for understanding the heavenly truths buried in these epistles from below.]]>
223 C.S. Lewis 0062023179 Jim 4 4.25 1942 The Screwtape Letters
author: C.S. Lewis
name: Jim
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1942
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Ego Is the Enemy 27036528
Many of us insist the main impediment to a full, successful life is the outside world. In fact, the most common enemy lies within: our ego. Early in our careers, it impedes learning and the cultivation of talent. With success, it can blind us to our faults and sow future problems. In failure, it magnifies each blow and makes recovery more difficult. At every stage, ego holds us back.

The Ego is the Enemy draws on a vast array of stories and examples, from literature to philosophy to history. We meet fascinating figures like Howard Hughes, Katharine Graham, Bill Belichick, and Eleanor Roosevelt, all of whom reached the highest levels of power and success by conquering their own egos. Their strategies and tactics can be ours as well.

But why should we bother fighting ego in an era that glorifies social media, reality TV, and other forms of shameless self-promotion?  Armed with the lessons in this book, as Holiday writes, “you will be less invested in the story you tell about your own specialness, and as a result, you will be liberated to accomplish the world-changing work you’ve set out to achieve.”]]>
226 Ryan Holiday 1591847818 Jim 3 4.12 2016 Ego Is the Enemy
author: Ryan Holiday
name: Jim
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2016
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Bhagavad Gita 99944 Mahabharata incorporates Bhagavad-Gita, a sacred Hindu text that takes the form of a philosophical dialogue in which Krishna instructs Arjuna, the prince, in ethical matters and the nature of God.

Krishna expounds the nature and the way that humans can come to know God to Arjuna, the warrior prince in the Bhagavad-Gita.

Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic, contains the text of the Bhagavad-Gita.

This early epic poem recounts the conversation between the warrior and his charioteer, the divine manifestation. It sets out the important lessons to learn to change the outcome of the war in the moments before a great battle that the warrior fights, and culminates in revealing the true cosmic warrior and counselling him to search for the universal perfection of life. This most important work ranges from yoga postures to dense moral discussion and serves as a practical guide to living well.]]>
160 Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa 0140449183 Jim 4 4.13 -400 The Bhagavad Gita
author: Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa
name: Jim
average rating: 4.13
book published: -400
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Secret (The Secret, #1) 52529 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781582701707.

The worldwide bestselling phenomenon that has helped millions tap the power of the law that governs all our lives to create—intentionally and effortlessly—a joyful life.

In 2006, a groundbreaking feature-length film revealed the great mystery of the universe—The Secret—and, later that year, Rhonda Byrne followed with a book that became a worldwide bestseller.

Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions, and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.

In this book, you’ll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life—money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You’ll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that’s within you, and this revelation can bring joy to every aspect of your life.

The Secret contains wisdom from modern-day teachers—men and women who have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness. By applying the knowledge of The Secret, they bring to light compelling stories of eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcoming obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible.]]>
199 Rhonda Byrne Jim 4 3.74 2006 The Secret (The Secret, #1)
author: Rhonda Byrne
name: Jim
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Man's Search for Meaning 4069 Man's Search for Meaning has become one of the most influential books in America; it continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living.]]> 165 Viktor E. Frankl 080701429X Jim 4 4.38 1946 Man's Search for Meaning
author: Viktor E. Frankl
name: Jim
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1946
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith]]> 10890 Operating Instructions and Bird by Bird, her fans have been waiting for her to write the book that explained how she came to the big-hearted, grateful, generous faith that she so often alluded to in her two earlier nonfiction books. The people in Anne Lamott's real life are like beloved characters in a favorite series for her readers: Her friend Pammy; her son, Sam; and the many funny and wise folks who attend her church are all familiar. And Traveling Mercies is a welcome return to those lives, as well as an introduction to new companions Lamott treats with the same candor, insight, and tenderness.

Lamott's faith isn't about easy answers, which is part of what endears her to believers as well as nonbelievers. Against all odds, she came to believe in God, and then, even more miraculously, in herself. As she puts it, "My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers." At once tough, personal, affectionate, wise, and very funny, Traveling Mercies tells in exuberant detail how Anne Lamott learned to shine the light of faith on the darkest part of ordinary life, exposing surprising pockets of meaning and hope.]]>
275 Anne Lamott 0385496095 Jim 4 4.14 1999 Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
author: Anne Lamott
name: Jim
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1999
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Adultery 20819682 272 Paulo Coelho 1101874082 Jim 3 3.10 2012 Adultery
author: Paulo Coelho
name: Jim
average rating: 3.10
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times]]> 687278
• Using painful emotions to cultivate wisdom, compassion, and courage
• Communicating so as to encourage others to open up rather than shut down
• Practices for reversing habitual patterns
• Methods for working with chaotic situations
• Ways for creating effective social action]]>
148 Pema Chödrön 1570623449 Jim 4 4.26 1996 When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
author: Pema Chödrön
name: Jim
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1996
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution]]> 23317538
It is the rise from falling that Brown takes as her subject in Rising Strong. As a grounded theory researcher, Brown has listened as a range of people—from leaders in Fortune 500 companies and the military to artists, couples in long-term relationships, teachers, and parents—shared their stories of being brave, falling, and getting back up. She asked herself, What do these people with strong and loving relationships, leaders nurturing creativity, artists pushing innovation, and clergy walking with people through faith and mystery have in common? The answer was clear: They recognize the power of emotion and they’re not afraid to lean in to discomfort.

Walking into our stories of hurt can feel dangerous. But the process of regaining our footing in the midst of struggle is where our courage is tested and our values are forged. Our stories of struggle can be big ones, like the loss of a job or the end of a relationship, or smaller ones, like a conflict with a friend or colleague. Regardless of magnitude or circumstance, the rising strong process is the same: We reckon with our emotions and get curious about what we’re feeling; we rumble with our stories until we get to a place of truth; and we live this process, every day, until it becomes a practice and creates nothing short of a revolution in our lives. Rising strong after a fall is how we cultivate wholeheartedness. It’s the process, Brown writes, that teaches us the most about who we are.]]>
336 Brené Brown 0812995821 Jim 4 4.25 2015 Rising Strong: The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution
author: Brené Brown
name: Jim
average rating: 4.25
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1)]]> 629 Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an examination of how we live, a meditation on how to live better set around the narration of a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest, undertaken by a father & his young son.]]> 540 Robert M. Pirsig 0060589469 Jim 4 3.78 1974 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1)
author: Robert M. Pirsig
name: Jim
average rating: 3.78
book published: 1974
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life]]> 14096 304 Jon Kabat-Zinn 1401307787 Jim 3 4.13 1994 Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
author: Jon Kabat-Zinn
name: Jim
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1994
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead]]> 13588356 Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brené Brown offers a powerful new vision that encourages us to dare greatly: to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly, and to courageously engage in our lives.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” —Theodore Roosevelt

Every day we experience the uncertainty, risks, and emotional exposure that define what it means to be vulnerable, or to dare greatly. Whether the arena is a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation, we must find the courage to walk into vulnerability and engage with our whole hearts.

In Daring Greatly, Dr. Brown challenges everything we think we know about vulnerability. Based on twelve years of research, she argues that vulnerability is not weakness, but rather our clearest path to courage, engagement, and meaningful connection. The book that Dr. Brown’s many fans have been waiting for, Daring Greatly will spark a new spirit of truth—and trust—in our organizations, families, schools, and communities.]]>
287 Brené Brown 1592407331 Jim 3 4.29 2012 Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
author: Brené Brown
name: Jim
average rating: 4.29
book published: 2012
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
Jonathan Livingston Seagull 71728
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is no ordinary bird. He believes it is every gull's right to fly, to reach the ultimate freedom of challenge and discovery, finding his greatest reward in teaching younger gulls the joy of flight and the power of dreams. The special 20th anniversary release of this spiritual classic!]]>
112 Richard Bach 0743278909 Jim 4 3.87 1970 Jonathan Livingston Seagull
author: Richard Bach
name: Jim
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1970
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards]]> 23647129
The majority of our joys, struggles, thrills, and heartbreaks relate to people, beginning first with ourselves and then the people we came from, married, birthed, live by, live for, go to church with, don't like, don't understand, fear, struggle with, compare ourselves to, and judge. People are the best and worst thing about the human life.

Jen Hatmaker knows this all too well, and so she reveals how to practice kindness, grace, truthfulness, vision, and love to ourselves and those around us. By doing this, For the Love leads our generation to reimagine Jesus' grace as a way of life, and it does it in a funny yet profound manner that Christian readers will love. Along the way, Hatmaker shows readers how to reclaim their prophetic voices and become Good News again to a hurting, polarized world.]]>
224 Jen Hatmaker 0718031822 Jim 4 4.06 2015 For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards
author: Jen Hatmaker
name: Jim
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality]]> 7214 Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 0785263705 here.

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." ―Donald Miller

In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.

For anyone wondering if the Christian faith is still relevant in a postmodern culture.

For anyone thirsting for a genuine encounter with a God who is real.

For anyone yearning for a renewed sense of passion in  life.

Blue Like Jazz is a fresh and original perspective on life, love, and redemption.

]]>
243 Donald Miller 0785263705 Jim 4 3.90 2003 Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality
author: Donald Miller
name: Jim
average rating: 3.90
book published: 2003
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1]]> 15015
I have heard the crying of your heart. I have seen the searching of your soul. I know how deeply you have desired the Truth. In pain have you called out for it, and in joy. Unendingly have you beseeched Me. Show Myself. Explain Myself. Reveal Myself.

I am doing so here, in terms so plain, you cannot misunderstand. In language so simple, you cannot be confused. In vocabulary so common, you cannot get lost in the verbiage.

So go ahead now. Ask Me anything. Anything. I will contrive to bring you the answer. The whole universe will I use to do this. So be on the lookout; this book is far from My only tool. You may ask a question, then put this book down. But watch.

Listen.

The words to the next song you hear. The information in the next article you read. The story line of the next movie you watch. The chance utterance of the next person you meet. Or the whisper of the next river, the next ocean, the next breeze that caresses your ear - all these devices are Mine; all these avenues are open to Me. I will speak to you if you will listen. I will come to you if you will invite Me. I will show you then that I have always been there.

All ways.]]>
223 Neale Donald Walsch 0399142789 Jim 4 4.20 1995 Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Book 1
author: Neale Donald Walsch
name: Jim
average rating: 4.20
book published: 1995
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
The Road to Character 22551809
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST

With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives.

Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade.

Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.

“Joy,” David Brooks writes, “is a byproduct experienced by people who are aiming for something else. But it comes.”]]>
320 David Brooks 081299325X Jim 4 3.62 2015 The Road to Character
author: David Brooks
name: Jim
average rating: 3.62
book published: 2015
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2016/12/30
shelves:
review:

]]>