I have a list for this year! First year I have ever made such a list. It is not inclusive though indicative of what is shaping my world. Ones that inspire and amaze me. Some outrage me though I am less and less susceptible to outrage as a strategy for living. It costs a lot of my heartbeats and does not save many of mine or anyone else.
Speaking of heartbeats, two books by an author new to me. Caitlin Doughty explores what happens to us when they stop - heartbeats that is.
She is a good writer with a fascinating story I read two of hers this year. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And other Lessons from the Crematory
and From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
Healing Grounds by Liz Carlisle is a collection of stories of people (mostly Women) recovering from chemical agriculture and producing living food for living people. One of the star women on my list.
This change in attitude may be because I am currently in the midst of some very amazing works by other Women writers. Almost all I am reading right now are women, and I have 4 open right now calling me to their attention.
I Think You are Wrong (But I’m Listening): A guide to Grace-filled Political Conversations by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers from opposite perspectives who refuse to let these perspectives keep them separate. Very good for these times. Especially as we Montanans enter into our bi-annual legislature with a super-majority. So I am also reading The Montana Constitution written by 100 people in 1972 and the envy of many states and governments. The right to a clean and healthy environment is imbedded in this document and perhaps vulnerable to this super majority.
So Vandana Shiva’s story as an activist advocate for this living environment is so important and riveting. Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements and along with Sarah and Beth, shares the top of my list with Kristin Ohlson Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World confirms my belief in life being beautifully connected in ways so amazing that I fall down in awe of being so lucky to be on this planet at this time!
Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America by Beth Hoffman is close to Liz Carlisle’s work in how screwed up agriculture has come to be by the numbers and how she and her husband and father-in-law are working out the transition of land management from Commodity production to Food production. Eye opening from start to finish.
One of the men I read this year and who inspired deeply is Tyson Yunkaporta Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World And I think he may be right. Big change in how most of us “Civilized people” see and experience life. I don’t usually read a book more than once, yet this is an exception
Another man from this year and who has inspired some of that change Tyson calls for is Joseph Jenkins The Humanure Handbook: Shit in a Nutshell How we turn drinking water into toxic waste streams by pooping and peeing into it, then flushing the combination into cesspools. And what we can do about it to close the loop on soil fertility and health through compost!
Charles Eisenstein’s thinking and writing have opened awareness of though patterns that have controlled me and that can set me free when I read A More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible probably about 9 years ago. It is so good! That was followed by Climate, A New Story that did the same thing to my heart and brain. So I gave him my attending in attempting to navigate the mine-fields of covid. He helps a lot. The Coronation: Essays from the Covid Moment has helped me find my path in this experiment of health and well-being.
And I explore much of what I find (and I actively look for as well as am surprised by) people exploring the world of Dowsing as a way to deeper knowledge and connection with the living world. So Joey Korn was one of those whose work I am practicing. Dowsing: A Path to Enlightenment is beautiful and fits in very well with Prayers of the Cosmos: Reflections on the Original Meaning of Jesus’s Words translated from the original Aramaic by Neil Douglas-Klotz bringing the feminine to light through his teachings. My “go to guy” for destroying the illusions of what is possible/impossible is Raymon Grace The Future is Yours (do something about it): True stories about Dowsing, Spontaneous Healing, Ghost Busting, and the Incredible Power of the Mind He consistently pokes my mind through the cultural, social, educational, religious, scientific barriers to what holds us back. I keep reading and listening to him!
This incomplete list of important books will close with one I have read every year for the past 2 or more decades. The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness by Jean Giono (also known as The Man Who Planted Trees) is one I will close the year with. I never get tired of reading it - mostly aloud and to others. I cry every time!
How blessed I am to be in the presence of such beautiful thoughts and with the time to read them.
Thanks for all of the recommendations! I appreciate that they’re not all 2022 books so I can find them in paperback/used. I also loved Drive your Plow!
Hey Lola, thanks for the inspiration!
I have a list for this year! First year I have ever made such a list. It is not inclusive though indicative of what is shaping my world. Ones that inspire and amaze me. Some outrage me though I am less and less susceptible to outrage as a strategy for living. It costs a lot of my heartbeats and does not save many of mine or anyone else.
Speaking of heartbeats, two books by an author new to me. Caitlin Doughty explores what happens to us when they stop - heartbeats that is.
She is a good writer with a fascinating story I read two of hers this year. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And other Lessons from the Crematory
and From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
Healing Grounds by Liz Carlisle is a collection of stories of people (mostly Women) recovering from chemical agriculture and producing living food for living people. One of the star women on my list.
This change in attitude may be because I am currently in the midst of some very amazing works by other Women writers. Almost all I am reading right now are women, and I have 4 open right now calling me to their attention.
I Think You are Wrong (But I’m Listening): A guide to Grace-filled Political Conversations by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers from opposite perspectives who refuse to let these perspectives keep them separate. Very good for these times. Especially as we Montanans enter into our bi-annual legislature with a super-majority. So I am also reading The Montana Constitution written by 100 people in 1972 and the envy of many states and governments. The right to a clean and healthy environment is imbedded in this document and perhaps vulnerable to this super majority.
So Vandana Shiva’s story as an activist advocate for this living environment is so important and riveting. Terra Viva: My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements and along with Sarah and Beth, shares the top of my list with Kristin Ohlson Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World confirms my belief in life being beautifully connected in ways so amazing that I fall down in awe of being so lucky to be on this planet at this time!
Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America by Beth Hoffman is close to Liz Carlisle’s work in how screwed up agriculture has come to be by the numbers and how she and her husband and father-in-law are working out the transition of land management from Commodity production to Food production. Eye opening from start to finish.
One of the men I read this year and who inspired deeply is Tyson Yunkaporta Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save The World And I think he may be right. Big change in how most of us “Civilized people” see and experience life. I don’t usually read a book more than once, yet this is an exception
Another man from this year and who has inspired some of that change Tyson calls for is Joseph Jenkins The Humanure Handbook: Shit in a Nutshell How we turn drinking water into toxic waste streams by pooping and peeing into it, then flushing the combination into cesspools. And what we can do about it to close the loop on soil fertility and health through compost!
Charles Eisenstein’s thinking and writing have opened awareness of though patterns that have controlled me and that can set me free when I read A More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible probably about 9 years ago. It is so good! That was followed by Climate, A New Story that did the same thing to my heart and brain. So I gave him my attending in attempting to navigate the mine-fields of covid. He helps a lot. The Coronation: Essays from the Covid Moment has helped me find my path in this experiment of health and well-being.
And I explore much of what I find (and I actively look for as well as am surprised by) people exploring the world of Dowsing as a way to deeper knowledge and connection with the living world. So Joey Korn was one of those whose work I am practicing. Dowsing: A Path to Enlightenment is beautiful and fits in very well with Prayers of the Cosmos: Reflections on the Original Meaning of Jesus’s Words translated from the original Aramaic by Neil Douglas-Klotz bringing the feminine to light through his teachings. My “go to guy” for destroying the illusions of what is possible/impossible is Raymon Grace The Future is Yours (do something about it): True stories about Dowsing, Spontaneous Healing, Ghost Busting, and the Incredible Power of the Mind He consistently pokes my mind through the cultural, social, educational, religious, scientific barriers to what holds us back. I keep reading and listening to him!
This incomplete list of important books will close with one I have read every year for the past 2 or more decades. The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness by Jean Giono (also known as The Man Who Planted Trees) is one I will close the year with. I never get tired of reading it - mostly aloud and to others. I cry every time!
How blessed I am to be in the presence of such beautiful thoughts and with the time to read them.
Thanks for all of the recommendations! I appreciate that they’re not all 2022 books so I can find them in paperback/used. I also loved Drive your Plow!