Books & Authors — Post your favorites! — Back to:

Linda— [June 04]
Now Is the Time to Open your Heart — Alice Walker

Marsha— [May 04]
Nevada Barr mysteries.  I heard about her recently from our woman priest, and am really enjoying her books –
main character works for the National Park Service, and each book is set in a different national park –
the one I'm currently reading is on Ellis Island!  I understand the author has also had a spiritual conversion,
and I'm looking forward to reading her nonfiction book called Seeking Enlightenment - Hat by Hat –
haven't gotten hold of it yet.

Janice— [May 04]
PG Wodehouse — Jeeves Takes Charge, Thank You Jeeves, Carry on Jeeves, Stiff Upper lip Jeeves, etc. 
The readers we've enjoyed are Alexander Spencer and Jonathan Cecil.
Janice— [May 04]
Listening to God in Times of Choice — Gordon T Smith
Janice— [Feb 04]
Anything by Dallas Willard, esp: Divine Conspiracy.
Anything by John Eldredge (start with Sacred Romance?)
Soul Survivor (or anything else) — Philip Yancey
Enjoyed a couple stand-alone novels by Orson Scott Card when I couldn't
access the Enders series Deb and Dan were talking about awhile back
(Treasure Box, Lost Boys, a good one about a house renovator/builder but
can't remember title).
A Sunday Trib article about novels by Olaf Olafsson intrigued me —
have a couple titles on hold at library
(Absolution, and Walking into the Night — newly out), but found
The Journey Home, which I've just finished definitely worthwhile.
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver (Linda's lead)
The same Sunday Trib article about novels by OlafOlaf (sit, sit)
mentioned a few others of similar weight (I've not read):
Reading in the Dark — Seamus Deane
That Night — Alice McDermott
Mariette in Ecstasy — Ron Hansen
Atonement — Ian McEwan
The English Patient — Michael Ondaantje
Creation — Katherine Govier
The Awakening — Kate Chopin

Linda— [Feb 04]
Here's my recent recommended reading list (y'all have heard many of these before!—and I may be getting hazy on a couple of the authors). From me, you'll get either fiction (my fun bedtime reading) or some version of inspirational, I guess. Though what inspires some doesn't others, of course.

The Secret Life of Bees — Sue Monk Kidd
Folly and Keeping Watch — Laurie King (she also has two detective series, one old-fashioned one that includes Sherlock Holmes and his new young female assistant, and one contemporary one, several books each)
*The Samurai's Garden (and others, Women of the Silk, etc.) — Gail Tsukiyama
*The Purple Pickle Club (and others) — Sandra Dallas
Prodigal Summer — Barbara Kingsolver (particularly if you've already slogged through Poisonwood Bible and enjoyed her earlier novels)
*Bel Canto — Ann Patchett (a very good book with a controversial ending, which is to say that LaVonne and I disagree about it — she liked the ending and I didn't)
*The Pilot's Wife — Anita Shreve
Finding Moon — Tony Hillerman (I enjoyed his entire mystery series — this is one that isn't one of those)
*The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency — Alexander McCall Smith (also Tears of the Giraffe; Morality for Beautiful Girls; The Kalahari Typing School for Men)
There is a series of books by Diana Gabaldon that are fun — a curious mix of genre that I don't read very often — romance, time travel, historical fiction — but I enjoyed them a lot:
Outlander; Dragonfly in Amber; Voyager; Drums of Autumn; The Fiery Cross.

(*) The ones that I've starred are my guess at the ones that would be the best "read aloud" options at a point that Karis might be wanting someone to read to her.
Gaia's Garden — Toby Hemenway. This is the single best book recommendation I can make for anyone who is interested in my vision for the Iowa property.
Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person — M.C. Richards
Creativity — Matthew Fox
x
Marsha—
. . . some recent reading I've enjoyed, a couple of good authors that you may already be familiar with.
One is Dana Stabenow, whose books are set in Alaska; I'd read one years ago, amused by the grousing in the opening pages over the 79-degree heat wave, and recently have read several in a row. (In one book there is a bitter denunciation of all organized religion after the main character's experience with a rabidly right-wing church, but in a later volume she encounters a female minister of quite a different type, and discovers religious people are not all of the same mold.)
Then I've found two books by John Smolens, one set on an island off the coast of New England, the other in Upper-Peninsula Michigan, and he has another book I haven't gotten hold of yet.

C.S. Lewis
     Narnia
     Mere Christianity
     Screwtape Letters

Lawrence Block
     Series: Burglar ; Hit Man/List ; Scudder ; Tanner ; . . .

William Goldman
     Princess Bride

Thornton Wilder
     The Eighth Day of Creation

Kornfield-Deb—
Some Wildflower in my Heart — Jamie Langston Turner (Bethany)
Changing for Good — James Prochaska (Avon)
Atonement Child — Francine Rivers (Tyndale)
Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse — Diane Langberg (Tyndale)
On the Threshold of Hope — Diane Langberg (Tyndale)