Raise your Vibration by Reading - 20 Book Recommendations for the Everyday Intellect
The “Blue Night” in August 2018 in Minneapolis, during the moments my step-father was dying. Pictured here, a few blocks from his home, is his church Our Lady of Lourdes. As our family was going through these painful moments, I walked that evening and received comfort from Joan Didion’s “Blue Nights”.
In the beginning of 2018 I made a self-promise to cut down on screen time, stop binge-watching and see how many books I could read or listen to (without cramming or stressing) over the course of one year. I’ve devoured over 30+ books this year. Here are some favorites. All are highly recommended. Enjoy!! xo #flygirlsf
#1 A Return to Love (1992) Marianne Williamson
Audio Version
I discovered this book in 2016, and re-read it at least once a year. A must-have go-to read for EVERYONE. If you want more love and joy in your life, implement, be and live the methods described in this book. I especially love the AUDIO version because it is narrated by Marianne herself. Thank you Marianne for this big, big reminder that LOVE is what life is truly about. Whenever I get “stuck” in ANY relationship, Return to Love is a perfect book to remember.
#2 Blue Nights (2011) Joan Didion
Audio Version
“This book is called ‘Blue Nights” because at the time I began it, I found my mind turning increasingly to illness, to the end of promise, to the dwindling of the days, the inevitability of the fading, the dying of the brightness. Blue Nights are the opposite of the the dying of the brightness, but they are also its warning”. ~Joan Didion
Blue Nights is Joan’s follow up to The Year of Magical Thinking. I read these books consecutively, and although both are about loss, their styles differ greatly, Blue Nights describes the “feeling” of anguish that comes from loss of a child. Joan writes of her fear, confusion and struggle in losing her adopted daughter. She describes her inner conflicts and what she believes may have been her own failures. Again, this is a raw account of death, and is beautiful prose. I happened to be reading this book during the time of my stepfather’s death this past summer, when the nights were actually “blue” in Minneapolis. This book helped me cope with the Big Loss our family experienced, and helped me feel less alone during this time of great pain.
“Can you evade the dying of the brightness? Or do you evade only its warning? Where are you left if you miss the message the blue nights bring?” ~Joan Didion
#3 Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (2016) Trevor Noah
Audio Version
Funny as H-LL and entertaining. A quick read. I love books that show a completely different perspective of growing up - and in this instance we learn about Trevor’s upbringing in Apartheid South Africa and how it affected his life and made him who he is today. A lighthearted read, this book covers more serious subjects, most specifically describing exactly what Trevor MEANS by having his existence considered a “Crime”. It is amazing how he has taken over The Late Show and made “Lemonade” out of his situation.
#4 Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2015) Ashlee Vance
Audio Version
This is the fascinating story of the life of Elon Musk, his background growing up in South Africa, and his successes so far. It tells of Elon’s founding of Zip2 (and acquisition by Compaq), X.com/PayPal, the funding of Tesla and the Founding of SpaceX, among other things. Reading this I was both impressed and also wondering how on earth someone has THIS MUCH creativity and energy to do so many BIG THINGS! And the irony of this is he’s not even done (there are no mentions here of The Boring Company). If you want to hear an incredible story of hard work and success, read this book. I’m super impressed by Elon and am looking forward to reading the next chapter of his story in the future.
#5 Exodus (1958) Leon Uris
Audio Version
Exodus. What a book! I read The Haj by Leon Uris over 20 years ago when I visited Israel, and just by happenstance come across this book in 2018 and decided to give it a go. This historical fiction tale recalls the exodus of the Jews to the Holy Land after WWII and describes in detail the founding of Israel. The BIGGEST thing I noticed (just like from reading The Silk Roads, reviewed earlier), was how skewed my own education has been! Neither my High School nor University ever taught me about things such as The Pale of Settlement (I’d never heard of this before reading this book) and the Jewish internment in Cypress (by the Brits) after World War II. An ambitious read, pick this one up for a long haul flight (and DEFINITELY pick it up if that long haul flight is heading to Israel). ;)
#6 Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts (2018) Brené Brown
Audio Version
I was introduced to Brené Brown in 2017 through her famous TED Talk on Vulnerability and have had many discussions about her work in The Hell Yes Academy, an amazing online course I took through my friend and teacher Patricia Russo earlier this year. So when I saw Brené’s book in the airport and read in the WSJ that it was a #1 bestseller, I had to get it. Dare to Lead touches upon delicate communication concepts we never learned in school. Brené has coached many high-profile leaders, including Melinda Gates, and the lessons and examples in this book seem like “common sense” once she breaks them down. Her “marble jar” example of Trust Building will forever be etched into my psyche, and I have already implemented her method in my current relationships. I also love her techniques for BRAVING and “Learning to RISE". A “lightbulb moment” I had while reading this book had to do with Brené’s examples of "the stories we tell ourselves” and how they can hold us hostage in our struggles, and how if we don’t “own” them, they “own” us. This is a quick read, great for anyone who wants to learn how to communicate and press through (the average) 8 seconds of discomfort we feel in initiating “difficult conversations”.
#7 A Farewell to Arms (1929) Ernest Hemingway
Audio Version
A totally random read, this is the love story between Frederic Henry (an American expatriate Paramedic serving in the Italian Army during World War I), and Catherine, an English Nurse. This novel is based on Hemingway’s life while working as an Ambulance Driver on the Italian Front in 1918.
I was inspired by a book list from Joan Didion (where she mentioned she’d learned to write by typing out the sentences from “A Farewell to Arms”). I’ve read other books by Hemingway (The Old Man and the Sea (1952), A Moveable Feast (1964)), but never paid attention to sentence structure in these books. So I dug into this classic. Hemingway writes with a flowy style, longer sentences flanked by shorter ones that “sing” on the pages. I noticed Leon Uris had similar sentence structure in Exodus, and of course also saw it in Joan’s writing, especially in Blue Nights and The Year of Magical Thinking.
I literally “felt” I was with Catherine and Frederic:
“I turned her so I could see her face when I kissed her and I saw that her eyes were shut. I kissed both her shut eyes. I thought she was probably a little crazy. It was all right if she was. I did not care what I was getting into. This was better than going every evening to the house for officers where the girls climbed all over you and put your cap on backwards as a sign of affection between their trips upstairs with brother officers. I knew I did not love Catherine Barkley, nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you said things instead of playing cards. Like bridge you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes. Nobody had mentioned what the stakes were. It was alright with me.”
*Coincidentally, Hemingway seemed to be in my path all of 2018. In July, I stayed at a Hotel in Petoskey Michigan where he summered, and while biking in Prosecco, Italy this past October, we rode right past the river and apartment by and in which he lived. (Pictured below.)
#8 A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel (2016) Amor Towles
Audio Version
This novel drew me in from page one. Set in Revolutionary Russia, it tells the story of a former nobleman, who was “saved” during the revolution because he’d written some essays supporting Marxist Theory earlier in his life. Although his life was saved, the protagonist is confined to living in the Metropol, a luxury hotel in Moscow. This book is a page-turner, hard to put down. I’d read Rules of Civility (2011). by the same author in 2017, and like that story, this one too does not disappoint. I loved the clever ending in the novel, and am now inspired to visit Russia. A wonderful read, cozy and warm, and worth the time!
#9 Mother American Night: My Life in Crazy Times (2018) John Perry Barlow (with Robert Greenfield)
Audio Version
I was sad to hear about JPB’s passing earlier this year, but thrilled to see he’d written a book! Born in Wyoming to Republican ranchers, and a close friend of JFK Jr’s, John Perry-Barlow led an extremely crazy, interesting life. In addition to being a lyricist for the Grateful Dead, JPB (along with Mitch Kapoor), was the co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation - which today has more relevance than one might have ever expected. This book is a quick read, good for a cross-country flight or weekend away.
#10 Kitchen Confidential (2000) Anthony Bourdain
Audio Version
After Anthony’s passing earlier this year I was inspired to pick up a copy of Kitchen Confidential. Although this book is now almost 20 years old, the stories are still relevant. Anthony’s writing style is simple, easy to read. There are tons of laughs in this book; I often found myself giggling out loud as I sped-read along. I learned that cooking is a craft and not an art. Also that I should use ONE Japanese Chef’s knife (vs a set of knives), and never to burn the garlic!. Anthony makes you feel like you’re right there with him as you read along. If you want a fun, quick education on cooking and the restaurant business start here!
#11 Quantum Healing (1989) Deepak Chopra
Audio Version
A quick read, this book describes the Mind-Body connection and how everything is universally intertwined. Chopra writes about the body’s ability to heal itself (did you know that the liver regenerates every 6 weeks?). Or that the DNA molecules that make up our body are ever evolving - the atoms and particles are constantly“fluctuating in a field of energy”. Deepak’s theory supports both Yogic Philosophy and the scientific concept that everything is energy, impulses of intelligence in your own awareness. Did you know that when you have a “gut feeling” that this is your BRAIN actually speaking to you? Essentially we cannot escape the mind-body connection, and how we can heal ourselves from dis-ease, not through a “magic pill”, but through the “mind” of each cell.
#12 The Dollhouse: A Novel (2017) Fiona Davis
Audio Version
Set in 1950’s New York City, this novel tells of the those who inhabited the Barbizon Hotel for Women in NYC. It is somewhat a “story within a story” as it flashes back and forth from the past to 2016, drawing us into the life of the journalist who is researching the Barbizon for an online magazine article. As a fan of Sylvia Plath’s, I wanted to read about the boardinghouse in which she once resided. Not only did I get a flavor of 1950’s NYC, I started to understand the oppression under which “Career Women” existed in the recent past, and the limited amount of opportunities they really had (want to be a Secretary or a Ford Model?). This was a “fun” read, not too heavy, but with enough drama to be interesting.
#13 The Panic in Needle Park (1965) James Mills
I first heard about this book while watching the film on Netflix about Joan Didion’s life (“The Center will not Hold”). In the movie, Joan mentions the first screenplay she (and her husband John Gregory Dunne) ever wrote adapted from a book called “The Panic in Needle Park”. Although I’ve never seen this adaptation on screen, I was curious about the subject. I wanted to see if NYC junkie culture in the 1960s was anything like the streets of San Francisco today. Sadly, nothing much has changed.
#14 The Riviera Set: Glitz, Glamour and the Hidden World of High Society (2016) Mary S. Lovell
Audio Version
This book tells the story of the Chateau de l'Horizon, once owed by Maxine Elliott and the people who gathered at the villa from the 1920s through 1960 and the death of Prince Aly Khan. The house still exists in Southern France, now owned by the Saudi King. People and events covered in this book include the lives of Coco Chanel, The Mitford Sisters, Elsa Maxwell, Winston Churchill (did you know that he worked from his bed?), World War II (and how the former Duke and Duchess of Windsor supported Hitler and the Nazis), Rita Hayworth and her marriage to Aly Khan. The tone is a bit “gossipy”, but it is a very fun read, great for a beach vacation, especially in the South of France!
#15 The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (2016) Peter Frankopan
Audio Version
This really did feel like reading a “New History of the World”, and seeing the past anew. It was especially interesting to read given my doTerra Essential Oil practice + business, and how the spice trade along the Silk Roads influenced commerce, politics, religion and cultures.
There were some interesting facts I had not heard before, like how the Greek God Apollo “...provid(ed) the templates for Buddhist Sculpture, influenced by the Greeks in Southern Tajikistan and that Greek Theology was taught “as far away as India” per Alexander the Great. Also that “...the Gods of Olympus were revered across Asia. Young men in Persia and beyond were brought up reading Homer, and chanting the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides…”.
There are several mentions of medical practices, the spice trade and essential oils in the book as well. It also details Crimea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, The Huns, Ottoman Empire, the pillage of Africa and the Americas, up to WWI and WWII, and the more recent CIA training of the Jihadists. It takes us from the beginning of time until the present, explaining history from a new perspective.
This is an ambitious read - potentially one to save for long haul flights. You will need go allow yourself long, uninterrupted periods of time to complete this historical manuscript.
#16 The Third Circle (essays) (1909) Frank Norris
Audio Version
There is an alley in San Francisco near Polk street called “Frank Norris Place” and for years I’ve wondered who this person was. When I read Joan Didion’s book “Where I was From”, she mentions “The Octopus” by Frank Norris (about the founding of the Pacific Union Railroad in California). “The Octopus” , an epic, is on my list for 2019. However, this year, I was able to squeeze in The Third Circle, which is a series of Essays about San Francisco (and a few other places and events, like the Second Boer War in South Africa) that took place in the late 1800’s / early 1900s. Frank was an articulate writer, keenly observant of what was happening around him. He refers to places in SF that are still familiar to me, and describes a lifestyle that sometimes seems to have not changed much in the past 100+ years. My favorite story in The Third Circle is “A Caged Lion” - written with such suspense and accuracy - I cannot believe he saw this happen! This story alone makes the entire book worth reading.
#17 The White Album (1979) Joan Didion
Audio Version
I read this book 3 times this year. It is a collection of essays written between the years 1968-1978. Through these writings I learned about the history of Grace Cathedral and how it was “completed” by James Pike, the former Bishop of California (and how he subsequently died in the Jordanian desert on an adventure with his 3rd wife Diana Kennedy, where all they took with them was a map and 2 bottles of Coca-Cola).
I learned of the California Water System and how H2O is moved though the state. And that fires have been raging since this artificial system was instated. Of California she writes:
“Even now, the place is not all the hospitable to extensive settlement . As I write, a fire has been burning out of control for two weeks in the ranges behind the Big Sur Coast. Flash floods last night wiped out all major roads into Imperial County. I noticed this morning a hairline crack in a living room tile from last week’s Earthquake, a 4.4 I never felt.”
There is also a wonderful essay about the end of the 1960s, covering the Manson Murders and extensive details of conversations with Linda Kasabian. We read of her meetings with The Doors and the follies of Jim Morrison. Didion describes through her writing how the 1970’s morphed from the free-wheeling 1960s. She covers Nancy Regan at the “new” Governor’s Mansion in Sacramento, and also writes of the yearning, “This Marxist Idea” of “The New Feminism”, the second Women’s Movement (“fewer diaper and more Dante”).
I personally love Joan’s writing and objective observations of culture in these essays. An intellectual “hard” read, that takes time to process. A classic.
#18 The Wife Between Us (2018) Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
Audio Version
A psychological thriller, I picked this book up at an airport shop. Little did I know the entire flight my face would be “buried” in this novel. From the first page I was drawn into this modern story and loved how the authors kept me in suspense. I kept “just needing to read one more page’” before I could put it down. I had to be tempted not to skip ahead in anticipation, and the ending of this book is a total surprise. Of course I heard there is now a movie coming out based on this story and all I will say is : READ THE BOOK! (I’m not sure how they can portray the deep psychological flaws of the protagonist, and her motivations on film.)
#19 The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) Joan Didion
Audio Version
Joan Didion - what can I say? I first want to thank her nephew, Griffin Dunne, for making a movie on Netflix about Joan’s life. I’ve watched “The Center will not Hold” at least 20 times, and it has inspired me with something new each time I’ve seen it. As an English Major at University, the first question I asked myself when I saw the movie was - ‘Why didn’t we study Joan in our English Classes”? Since I never had that opportunity during the ‘80s and ‘90s, I took it upon myself to read much of her work this year. I find Joan fascinating because she’s such a keen observer, and she writes objectively, without a mask. The Year of Magical Thinking was an appropriate book for 2018, as it is about death and loss, something our family experienced with the passing of my stepfather in August. This is a raw book that will make you cry, and at the same time it cracks you open and leaves you feeling less alone.
#20 Where I was From Essays (2003) Joan Didion
Audio Version
This book taught me more about the History of California than any other I’ve read! We wonder - why are there so many fires? Well - maybe because all of the rivers in California were dammed after World War II to create an artificial living environment! Did you know that the Sacramento Valley used to be a freshwater sea for 6 months out of the year? It used to flood, just like the Nile. It’s a wonder that the “Camp Fire” happened in Paradise, on homesteaded land that once flooded annually. Ironically, Paradise is located right next to the Oroville Dam that almost totally broke a few winters ago. When I ask my friends who grew up in California if they were taught in school about the Reclamations Act and the damming of all the rivers, absolutely NO ONE (so far) has said “yes”!
THANK YOU Joan Didion for sharing “the crossing stories”, and for further educating us on how California came to be. This book also VERY MUCH helped me understand the fragmented culture where I live; the industrial farming practices (vs family farming elsewhere in the USA), the Military + Aviation culture in Long Beach and Los Angeles, and how the Federal Government still has a huge stake in the state. This book also inspired me to explore the works of Frank Norris (reviewed previously and in progress for 2019).
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PS: If you’re a reader too, please let me know what you think. I will be following up to this post with my “to-read” books for 2019. Since I’m still building next year's list, please comment with YOUR ideas and suggestions.
The Piave River in Italy where Ernest Hemingway lived while serving as an Ambulance Driver in the Italian Army.
With my brother and mother by the Piave River in Italy.
Hemingway’s apartment by the Piave River in Italy.
….And the sign I came across while staying at the Perry Hotel in Petosky, Michigan this past summer.