Talk about inner peace... Andi has a great list, and allow me to include -
The Travelers Gift - Andy Andrews
The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho
Many Lives Many Masters - Bruce WiessPHD

It's Not About the Bike
My Journey Back to Life
by Lance Armstrong

Grace and Grit by Ken Wilber

Thanks you guys! I reserved a bunch of these on my library's website...looking forward to some good reading.

Val

I love to read!!!
 

Okay, I sheepishly admit that I haven't read everyone's posts on the book suggestions, but I just read a great book Water For Elephants. I have loaned it out, and of course can't remember the author!

Take care,

It's Not About the Bike My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong

Grace and Grit by Ken Wilber

sounds good
 

I haven't read this but I plan to. Even the title makes me laugh.

DON'T LOOK BACK
WE'RE NOT GOING THAT WAY!
…OR How I Survived a Rocky Childhood, Fat, a Nervous Breakdown, Breast Cancer, Widowhood, Fire, Menopausal Single Motherhood and Still Manage to count My Lucky Chickens!

http://marciawallace.com/

Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Naomi Remen. Gave me peace and the ability to breath when I was 1st dx. I consumed it like a snack each day and was very sad when I was done.

Currently reading Tough Choices by Carly Fiorina

Patricia, what is Kitchen Table Wisdom about? You make it sound intriging....I guess i could Google it. But I had chemo today and feel like a slug. Tomorrow I will be wired though, so maybe can research it then....

Hi Bonnie,


Kitchen Table Wisdom is a compilation of healing stories, told by the author who is a Dr. who has suffered from Crohn's Disease for 40 years and changed her path mid-career from practicing internal medicine to practicing psychology for patients with life threatening illnesses (including cancer) as well as with Physicians. The stories she tells are her own and her patient's including those that were ill and the physicians she also treated. This book touched me in a way no book has done in many years. I have since shared it with everyone that I know who has been dx with cancer as well as my own surgeon. I highly recommend it. I hope your chemo went well today and that you have a healing week.

Hugs,
Patricia

Here is the statement on the back of the book:

"Despite the awesome powers of technology, many of us still do not live very well, " says Dr. Rachel Remen. We may need to listen to one another's stories again." Dr. Remen, whose unique perspective on healing comes from her background as a physician, a professor of medicine, a therapist, and a long-term survivor of chronic illness, invites us to listen from the soul. This remarkable collection of true stories draws on the concept of "kitchen table wisdom" - the human tradition of shared experience that shows us life in all its power and mystery and reminds us that the things we cannot measure may be the things that ultimately sustain and enrich our lives. Kitchen Table Wisdom addreses all the spiritual issues; suffering, meaning, love, faith and miracles in the languuage of absolute authority of our own life experience.

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD., is one of the earliest pioneers in the mind/body health field, and was one of the first to develop a psychological approach to people with life threatening illnesses and educate their physcians about hteir needs. She is cofounder and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Progrram, which was featured on Bill Moyer's PBS special Healing and the Mind, and is a Clinical Professor at teh University of California San Francisco School of Medicine.

Also "My grandfathers blessings"
 

This is another book by Rachel Naomi Remen - sometimes you can get it in a set with Kitchen Table wisdom. Both are really good, inspirational, and definitely (for me anyway) hanky material in a good way.

Thank you all for some great recommendations. Here's my contributions:

If you like biographies, I liked Jane Fonda's (My Life So Far) and Queen Noors (can't remember the name, sorry). Margaret George does great historical fiction and has done a book a Mary Queen of Scots, Cleopatra and Henry VIII - they are all fascinating and long!

Fiction - Travels with My Donkey, Tim Moore (hysterical), The Time Travelers Wife (fascinating) and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (fascinating asian culture).

Enjoy!!

Good Books Thanks
 

Just wanted to thank you all for your books selection. I love to read and to date have enjoyed The Alchemist, Devil in the White City & Infidel. Keep those suggestions coming it will get me through the long Michigan winter.

Mary

A couple others...light reading
 

I just finished two books--you don't need to read the first one before the second, but it helps. Norris Church Mailer wrote them (Norman Mailer's wife). Both are fast reads, not the literary classic sort of books, but definitely enjoyable reads. The first is Windchill Summer and the second one is Cheap Diamonds.

Val

This is a very interesting book... Loving What Is by Byron Katie. Google it. I have just started it, but I like it. (non-fiction)

"Katie's book, Loving What Is, can give you the tools you need to transform any problem, from everyday conflicts to lifelong traumas, into peace and understanding. It demonstrates clearly how asking four simple questions can change your life. For the first time, readers can find in one place detailed instructions, humorous anecdotes, and a wide variety of transcripts of people doing The Work on issues such as sex, relationships, death, the body, family, work, and money. This is the definitive sourcebook for The Work. Just reading the exchanges in Loving What Is has already helped people experience breakthroughs when nothing else worked."

I am enjoying a novel titled Gap Creek.
The author is Robert Morgan.

It is full of "hidden" messages and I am about to
start re-reading it with my yellow highlighter in hand.

I could so relate to this passage. It reminded me of the
day my Dad passed away. I walked out of the hospital
to find a beautiful, sunny day - it was 12 noon and
I saw school buses driving by ...

"It was the prettiest night you ever saw, with the moonlight slanting
on the creek and dew sparkling in the grass. The mountains rose like
shadows ahead of us.....it was the first time I ever noticed how the
way the world looks don't have a thing to do with what's going on with
people."

Just thought I'd share.

In Defense of Food

It discusses how far away we've gotten,as a culture, from real food. It questions whether much of what is sold and we buy in the grocery store would even qualify as food. Very interesting book.
Leslie

Good call, Leslie! IN DEFENSE OF FOOD has some excellent points we all need to know about.

Understanding what they call food these days is something that I have been working on since my extensive liver mets in 2002. I became VERY careful what I ate as I wanted to take the toxic load off my liver as best I could.

Shopping "the perimeter of the store" is something I learned myself, but this can help in lowering your purchases of frozen and convenience food that are full of things we need to avoid.
These habits persist and I find that more and more evidence is pointing to my hunch as being a good one.

Eat FRESH and ORGANIC. A very simple rule. The first local farmer's market opened March 5th and their produce is MUCH better and cheaper than the grocery chains.

Justice by Dominick Dunne. I'm actually listening to the unabridged version on tape, but it is interesting.

Great book that gives some insight about doctors How Doctors Think. Groopman, J.

Mary Jo,

All winter I have been enjoying J. Picoult Thanks.

Mar

Thanks Mary Jo!

Also THE ANATOMY OF HOPE by Dr. Jerome Groopman -- is worth the read. His personal battle w/debilitating back problems and pain is quite fascinating. The LESSONS he learned, beyond his medical degree and expertise are invaluable for each of us! Stunning revelations are buried in this great book.

Will try the other one, Mar. Appreciate your post!

Andi http://cdn-cf.aol.com/se/clip_art/gs...mals-butterfly