Books that have left a mark on me. (this site is still to be continued)
You can find most of these books at a very good price at Cygnus book club, you don't have to buy a minimum number
of books ever. I have been a member for years and enjoy the monthly reviews. From them I often choose to buy.
All the other books you can get from Amazon.com
Click on the book titles to find out where to get it, some of them take you to the book review s well..
Click on the title and it will give you more information, too.
THE MERMAID CHAIR by Sue Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd's stunning debut, The Secret Life of Bees, has transformed her into a genuine literary star. Now, in her
much-anticipated new novel, Kidd has woven a transcendent tale that will thrill her legion of fans and cement her reputation
as one of the most remarkable writers at work today.
What inspires the yearning for a soul mate? Few writers have explored, as Kidd does, the lush, unknown region of the
feminine soul where the thin line between the spiritual and the erotic exists. The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel
about the passions of the spirit and the ecstasies of the body; one that illuminates a woman's self-awakening with the brilliance
and power that only a writer of Kidd's ability could conjure.
THE GARGOYLE by Andrew Davidson
Love is as strong as death, as hard as Hell. The nameless and beautiful narrator of The Gargoyle is driving along a dark road
when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and wakes up in a burns ward,
undergoing the tortures of the damned. His life is over - he is now a monster. But in fact it is only just beginning.
One day, Marianne Engel, a wild and compelling sculptress of gargoyles, enters his life and tells him that they were once lovers in
medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly burned mercenary and she was a nun and a scribe who nursed him back
to health in the famed monastery of Engelthal. As she spins her tale, Scheherazade fashion, and relates equally mesmerising
stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy and England, he finds himself drawn back to life - and, finally, to love.
Amazon review
This is a truly remarkable first novel. In it Roma Tearne has managed
to combine a fast moving and exciting story with the most splendid
evocation of tropical Sri Lanka in the context of a war which is as
relevant today as it was several years ago. The story powerfully
gripping, and few people will be able to put it down once they begin
it. The narrative builds slowly and lyrically at first but then
starts to move along with and almost vertiginous speed producing
surprising and arresting twists and turns.
The story is set mainly in the author's native Sri Lanka, with its dense, wet forests, its long open beaches, its turquoise seas and its
vividly coloured plants.
The
characters pass their life in what should be an Edenic world but the
shadow of war falls across the land as it falls, too, across the
lives of the characters. Without warning this fertile and burgeoning
world is split open and the exotic idyll is disturbed in the most
violent and unexpected way. The conflict is, of course, the same one
which breeds death and destruction in Sri Lanka today, the civil war
which broke out between the Tamils and the Singhalese after the
withdrawal of British rule in 1945.
According to the book jacket it was this struggle which forced author's parents to flee the island in the 1960s, and the incidents have
clearly made an indelible
impression on the child's imagination.
The dominant impression of reading this book involves light and
colour, of shade, of dark and of half-light. For many years Roma
Tearne has been a painter and her sensitivity to the subtle nuances
of colour makes itself felt on every page. It was this aspect of the
writing which is most impressive. Roma Tearne's command of language
is economic, flexible and vivid. This is not a book that that has
been written in haste. Every sentence has been weighed not just for
its sense, but for its rhythm, its stresses and for the nuance of
each word that goes to make it up. The pleasures for the reader of
'Mosquito' are enormous and though the ending moved me to tears, I
still did not want the story to end.
THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs),
he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master,
Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver.
Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply
about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.
More:watch?v=3WXNOcIZkyg&feature=related
SMALL ISLAND by Andrea Levy (click on name for Biography)
Small Island is set in the dingy London of 1948, a time when landlords were allowed to deter undesirable tenants
by putting up a sign that read, “No Irish, no coloureds, no dogs”, and frequently did so.
This came as a jolt to Jamaican immigrants to Britain who, in their own eyes, weren’t immigrants at all but rightful
claimants to the land that they had been brought up to believe was their welcoming Mother Country.
Hortense Roberts, honey-skinned and impeccably white-gloved, has attended a private school that made her
familiar with Wordsworth, Shakespeare and the baking of fairy cakes, so she is baffled when Queenie, her white
London landlady, says, “I’m not worried about what busybodies say. I don’t mind being seen in the street with you.”
For it is Queenie, shabbily dressed and badly educated, who, the snobbish Hortense thinks, might be seen as
shaming company, “dressed in a scruffy housecoat with no brooch or jewel, no glove or even a pleasant hat to
lift the look a little”.
SECOND GLANCE by Jodie Picoult
Review
"The Washington Post Book World"In "Second Glance," love does travel through time. You don't have to believe
in ghosts to acknowledge the path it takes....
In a small Vermont town, an old man puts a piece of land up for sale, igniting a firestorm of protest from the local
Abenaki Indians, who insist it is an ancient burial ground.
To appease them the developer looking to buy the property hires a ghost hunter, Ross Wakeman. Ross is a suicidal
drifter desperate to cross paths again with his fiancee, who died in a car crash eight years earlier.
But after several late nights all Ross can lay claim to discovering is Lia Beaumont, a skittish, mysterious woman who,
like Ross, is on a search for something beyond the boundary separating life and death.
Thus begins Picoult's enthralling and ultimately astonishing story of love, fate and a crime of passion.
SECOND GLANCE, her eeriest and most engrossing work yet, delves into a virtually unknown chapter of American
history, Vermont's eugenics project of the 1920s and 30s, to provide a compelling study of the things that come back
to haunt us - literally and figuratively.
Do we love across time, or in spite of it?
| M o s t e x t r a o r d i n a r y |
The most extraordianry book I just finished reading, a must read. Check it out, it is awesome, truly is: |
TESTIMONY OF LIGHT by Helen Greaves
Testimony of Light is a document of lasting importance, telepathically transmitted to Helen Greaves by a close friend,
Frances Banks (an Anglican nun), who had recently died.
During her life on earth Frances Banks had been a deeply spiritual person who devoted her life to her quest for the
Divine and the service of others.
After she died, she was given the opportunity to view her past life and beliefs from the higher perspective of the soul.
Much that had puzzled and perplexed her while on earth became transparently clear, and as her consciousness was
gradually transformed by this higher wisdom, so she was transported to higher and higher levels of awareness and bliss.
The testimony she bears of the freer and fuller life beyond the veil, the infinite mercy of the Universe, and the purpose
of life on earth has much to teach us about how to live, as well as how to die.
Graceful and powerful, the story is deeply rooted in traditional Lakota teachings. Winona's Web will delight you and touch
your heart with its message of hope and prayer, love and loss, and learning to listen to the web of the world.
To the surprise of her family, Winona Pathfinder, an elderly Lakota Sioux medicine woman, announces she intends to die
in two months. For counseling, Winona is referred to psychologist Dr. Meggie O'Connor--Caucasian, middle-aged,
and divorced. A reluctant client, the feisty Winona decides to turn the tables and teach Dr. O'Connor a thing or two about
life, while steadfastly refusing to renounce her plans to die.
As fall turns to winter on the scenic Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan, Winona casts her web around the doctor.
Ever-dubious, Meggie O'Connor sees her professional methods slowly crumble before the earthy humor and soaring spirit
of her new teacher. Who is healing whom? Can the doctor convince Winona to step back from the gates to the spirit world?
Do angels ever incarnate in human bodies? This beautifully written, poignant, yet funny true story, suggests that they do.
John and Martha Beck were an ambitious and driven all-American couple.
Living and working in the fiercely competitive, intellectual hothouse of Harvard, the last thing they expected was to become
parents to a Down's Syndrome baby, still less one who was an `incarnating angel', as they were told by a psychic.
Yet, when Martha decided to trust in the tiny life she felt growing inside her, her hitherto ordinary life was transformed by
magical visions and strange, heart stopping experiences which caused her and her husband to redefine everything of
value to them, question their deepest beliefs, and put all their faith in miracles. And it worked.
Reveals the traditions of ancient womanhood and family honour. A remarkable combination of historical research,
biblical story, and sheer talent. very absorbing
EMISSARY OF LIGHT by James Twyman
Inspired by the life of St Francis of Assisi, James Twyman travels the world singing songs of peace and harmony.
In the late 1990s, he traveled to Bosnia to sing at a Peace Concert. While there, he was led to a mystical community known
as the Emissaries of Light, an ancient society whose purpose is to anchor peace where peace has been all but forgotten.
The Emissaries invited James to join in their meditations and learn their ways of transmuting fear into love.
Ten years on, in a new introduction to precede the main story, James clarifies the events that led to his life-changing experience.
With his help, each of us, too, can learn to become an Emissary of Light, and change the world.
I love every single one of Paulo Coelho's books. Other than 'The Alchemist' The following made an impression on me,
more than others:
Paulo Coelho's novel The Zahir is about a renowned author who writes about spirituality and once went on a pilgrimage
along the road to Santiago.
On a return visit, he is suddenly abandoned by his wife, who leaves no trace of herself behind. As the story unfolds the author
becomes obsessed with understanding the reason for her desertion. Was she kidnapped, blackmailed, or simply bored
with their marriage?
His search for her - and for the truth of his own life - takes him from South America to Spain, France, Croatia and, eventually,
the bleakly beautiful landscape of Central Asia. More than that, it leads him into a new understanding of the nature of love,
the power of destiny and what it really means to follow your heart.
‘Suffering occurs when we want other people to love us in the way we imagine we want to be loved, and not in the way
that love should manifest itself - free and untrammeled, guiding us with its force and driving us on.'
Random Acts of Heroic Love is a novel with two intertwining threads.
The first, set now, is the story of a man coming to terms with the loss of his girlfriend in a road accident in which he was
present but about which he can remember nothing.
The second is loosely based on the true story of my grandfather who fought for the Austro-Hungarian army in WWI
and was captured by the Russians in 1915. He was sent to a POW camp in Siberia. Kept alive by his love for a girl he
hardly knew, he escaped in 1917 and spent three years walking back home across Russia through deathly winters,
through war and revolution until eventually he made it back to his village. If you want to know whether he finds her and
how these two threads come together then please buy the book.
Suffused with the colours of Africa and the sounds of song, this is an exhilarating book that celebrates the power of music
as universal language, healer, political tool - the thread that links humankind across cultures and continents.'
Diana Burrell, composer.
THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS by Anita Amirrezvani
Anita Amirrezvani's debut novel, tells the story of a young woman in 17th-century Iran with a passion for knotting rugs.
Her life is thrown into an uproar when her father dies, and she and her mother must depend on the kindness of wealthy
relatives and hope that the young woman finds a wealthy husband. The Blood of Flowers is superbly written and a
moving story, sure to entrance readers.
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped,
Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms his place as one of the most
important literary writers today.
Propelled by the same superb instinct for storytelling that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic,
A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once an incredible chronicle of thirty years of Afghan history and a deeply
moving story of family, friendship, faith, and the salvation to be found in love.
Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women
brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them
--- in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul ---
they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately
alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation.
With heart-wrenching power and suspense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to
shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the
key to survival.
A stunning accomplishment, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling story of an
unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.
THE LITTLE SOUL by Neale Donald Walsch
This parable - which first appeared in a slightly different form in Conversations with God Book 1 -
will make a lasting impression on all children aged 1-100! Small children want to spend hours looking at the heavenly
illustrations, while older ones (including us!) will find it gives lovely, positive answers to many difficult questions,
freeing us from the need to judge ourselves and others, and helping us towards a lighter, more playful attitude to life,
even in life's trickier moments.
It gives us a new way of looking at why 'bad' things sometimes happen,
and a new way of dealing with those things when they occur. It also shows that everyone is loved by God in the same way,
and that even people we may not consider to be our friends may be God's angels in disguise.'
Life of Pi is at once a realistic, rousing adventure and a meta-tale of survival that explores the redemptive power of
storytelling and the transformative nature of fiction. It's a story, as one character puts it, to make you believe in God.
Click on the title for book review.
THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler's Wife is a 2003 novel by Audrey Niffenegger. It is an unconventional love story that centers on a
man with a strange genetic disorder that causes him to unpredictably time-travel, and his wife, an artist who has to cope
with his frequent absences and dangerous experiences. The story is set in Chicago and South Haven, New Michigan
NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION by Patrick Gale
Notes from an Exhibition marks a return to the curious, compelling county where Gale lives.
But it tells, darkly, of very different folk. Rachel Kelly is an artist of some renown, which is often all that matters to her.
To her long-suffering, stoic husband and children, she is, more tangibly, a manic depressive, and a poor role model.
Gale pursues the relationship between mental illness and creativity, but deftly avoids clichéd certainties.
Rachel is often brusque and unwinning; her treacheries both enabled her artistic maturation and then ended it.
THE SOUND OF THE DOLPHIN'S PSALM by Libby Layne
Libby Layne's adventures and passions have led her to a wonderful journey into the process of living and learning.
Learning from her research and experience with children of many different kinds of disabilities, she conducted a study
with four autistic children, one on one, to determine whether sounds created by dolphins made a difference in the
children's ability to communicate.
Passages of this book made me cry over and over. I even had the pleasure to take the opportunity to meet this
wonderful lady coming all the way from America to a dolphin conference in Milton Keynes.
This book I mentioned and made notes of in my own research of 'Is dolphin sound healing possible without
getting wet feet?' see my book:
As people’s fascination with Dolphins continues to grow, The Dolphin Lady offers realisations of the actual, a relationship
that is open to whoever dares!
The Dolphin Lady shows how minor setbacks and changes in lifestyle and direction are never negative and can be realised
as joyous standing stones to aid and direct the personal journey. No matter how tested one feels or challenged by setbacks,
Delphiris’s story displays a refreshing way to see life, finding positive reasons to remain on the path of true meaning.
This book is therapeutically all encompassing.
Enter the personal journey; learn about swimming with wild Dolphins and read a research paper on the very powerful
Ocean Sound Healing!