I *Heart* Books
Like what I have to say? Interested in what I’m reading?
Since Amazon decided not to do business with Colorado affiliates, they have closed my account.
The following books are now brought to you by The Tattered Cover Book Store, which is a local Colorado-grown business. I have always loved The Tattered Cover, so I’m pleased and proud to encourage you to do business with them. If you purchase books online through my links, I receive a commission on them. So… feel free!
Below, read my reviews! (You can click on the books to purchase them!)
Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder
Mr. Gaarder scores big in this wonderful story! Use it as a crash course in Western philosophy if you will. Sophie is a young lady with a penchant for imagination and rational thinking. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Anatomy Lesson by Philip Roth
Philip Roth is a sardonic, sarcastic author who describes the plight of being a Jewish American author. Suffering from chronic pain, he boozes and gets stoned and has sex with a harem of women in order to distract himself.
(Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Have you ever read a story that entrapped you so thoroughly that you were not only shocked when it came to an end, but also saddened because the characters had become part of your daily life? That is exactly what Arthur Golden did with this work of art. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Gathering by Anne Enright
To quote Kelly, “This was a fine book.” And fine it was. Not as in “fine, okay, whatever,” but as in, “girl, you are looking mighty fine on this fair eve.”
Anne Enright has a rare talent to weave words together and give otherwise unsuspecting inanimate objects life and fervor. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Dean Koontz is my go-to guy when it comes to easy, suspenseful reading. Ever since I discovered my love for thriller novels, he has been my favorite writer. And par for the course, Dean Koontz’s ‘Odd Thomas’ doesn’t disappoint! Meet Odd. He’s a charming young man with a gift from God: he can see, speak, and commune with dead people (including Elvis) AND he can see demons who flock to people who will have violent (or entertaining) deaths. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Secret Magdalene by Ki Longfellow
What a beautiful tale! This story tells a very different story of Jeshua. Magdalene is a young woman who, in her early years, practices arts that would have her cast from her home. Already in the precarious position of being a woman, she is forced to live her life in exile, as a man. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
SuperSense by Bruce Hood
This book reads like a college psychology text book. Which isn’t bad, considering I just graduated with my degree in Psychology. Essentially, this brings an atheistic perspective to all things supernatural (outside of the natural laws of physical nature). (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The River Wife by Jonis Agee
Jonis Agee… writes words that seep into your soul. The talent between the beginning and end covers is so artful and magnificent that I couldn’t help but see how much of her writing I could squeeze in until I finished it. You become the characters, and the two main women are not only lovable, but gritty and real. I cried.
(Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Superstition by David Ambrose
What begins with a skeptical journalist exposing a fraudulent psychic couple, this story quickly moves into an experiment led by a psychologist who studies paranormal activity. In his latest experiment, Sam Towne decides to walk a group of people through the process of creating a fictional character who will manifest himself as a ghost.
(Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The first time I picked up this book, I was either a junior or senior in high school. And I loved it.
Of course, I didn’t read the whole thing in high school. I read the first section, out of more than a handful of sections. This go around, I read the whole thing. I have several conclusions. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Warning!
This book is entirely depressing and ruthless.
However… it’s eloquently written, and McCarthy has the ability to paint an entire landscape riddled with uninhabitable anguish. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips
While reading the last few chapters of this gem, I cried. I love novels that bring tears to my eyes.
This masterpiece is a work by an artist of whom I had never heard. The story is a mesmerizing tale, told by five of the main characters: (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
In April of 1992, Christopher McCandless walked away from his life and into the Alaskan wilderness, carrying little more than a sleeping bag, some boots, a few books, and a bag of rice. This is a story, written by a journalist who empathized with McCandless’ drive for escaping into the wilderness, that documents Christopher’s personality, travels, and motivations. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine
There are few writers who can write about some of the most terrible things– and not end up with a terrible review. Levine is one of those few.
I wasn’t aware of what I was getting myself into when I picked up this book. I wasn’t aware that I would be thrown into the story of a nine year old girl who was taken to Mumbai to be sold into prostitution and slavery by her own father. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
Connie is a graduate student at Harvard, who is suckered by her mother into getting rid of her grandmother’s house and things, twenty years after her grandmother had passed away. The house is as anyone would expect a twenty year dilapidated home to be. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Some folks might sigh and say, “Another Holy Grail Book?” But I? I love esoteric stories such as this. There’s a beautiful undercurrent in life that is rejuvenated by the thrill of ancient secrets, historic stories, and mysterious adventure. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Chants of a Lifetime by Krishna Das
This book was enlightening on so many levels.
It is a man’s life story– a very interesting story– of how he ends up in an Indian ashram under the guidance of a godly man whom he calls Maharaj-ji. The gift that is given to this man, who is known as Krishna Das, is the gift of chanting or song. In this book, Krishna Das details in his own voice, the journeys and miraculous stories he comes across while he is paving his spiritual path. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
I have a new hero. I know, I’m trying not to be overly dramatic here, but this is an auto/biographical story of Greg Mortensen, a mountain-climber-turned-philanthropist who is in the business of changing the world.
Greg was climbing a mountain in Pakistan, when he got lost. Again. He stumbled upon a village, where he was welcomed and treated with extreme hospitality. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
Never before have I read something more poignant. As I listened to this audio book, I was tempted to rewind and re-listen to what I had just heard. Not because I didn’t understand it, but because I had never heard something so eloquently described. Hemon has an extraordinary talent of whisking his reader away into another world, another time, someone else’s memories. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
The Shift by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
When I received this book in the mail… let me just say it made me giddy like a little girl. Hay House (the publishing company that sent it to me), I love you. No, really.
Wayne Dyer happens to be my hands down favorite in the world of pop psychology, motivational speaking, and spiritual training. As far as I’m concerned, he’s the next spiritual teacher of his age, and his charismatic style makes it easy to listen to him. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
Demian by Hermann Hesse
“An enlightened man had but one duty- to seek the way to himself, to reach inner certainty, to grope his way forward, no matter where it led…”
“Each man had only one genuine vocation- to find the way to himself. He might end up as poet or madman, as prophet or criminal- that was not his affair, ultimately it was of no concern. His task was to discover his own destiny- not an arbitrary one- and live it out wholly and resolutely within himself. Everything else was only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity and fear of one’s own inwardness.”
These are two of my favorite quotes from Demian. (Click here for Miss Ash’s complete review.)
