In May I read eleven books and these are the ones I would especially point out.
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Healing—A Woman’s Journey from Doctor to Nun by Sister Dang Nghiem. Sister Nghiem was born in the midst of the Vietnam War and this book tells of her journey from her birth to now when she is affiliated with Thich Nhat Hanh and his order.
I loved her references to her mother and the thought of whether as Sister Nghiem transformed her own suffering, she also might be making her mother more free of her sufferings.
At one point she writes: We can live a life of such busyness, pain, and sorrow that, even if we’re successful, if we carry on in that way, we will feed our own pain. When I transform, I stop that cycle. I stop the cycle of abuse. I stop the cycle of violence. I stop the cycle of suffering. I transform for my mother and for the generations before her. (page 82)
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The Pioneer Woman—Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond. I enjoyed this book. I had just finished Jonathan Franzen’s book Freedom which you will notice I did not list here. And this book of a woman who fell in love and moved from city to ranch was refreshing. It is not a literary classic, but I liked it just the same. On top of that, I subscribed to her website and have learned a few things about ranching and gotten some good recipes.
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It Happened On the Way to War—A Marine’s Path to Peace by Rye Barcott. This was a memoir that compared his experiences with leadership initiatives in Kenya with some of his Marine experiences—pretty interesting.
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The Cow in the Parking Lot—A Zen Approach to Overcoming Anger by Leonard Scheff and Susan Edmiston. This was one of the books that I read a little bit of daily—I have about six of them going at a time.
This book offers many ideas for avoiding anger and also seeing what anger creates in other people. Here’s one gem: A saying comes to mind: Anger is as good at solving problems as a fan is at stacking papers. (page 65)
You might want to read it just to find out what getting “third-beared” means.
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