Is there a book that changed your life? Or your life view?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo: a Child, an Elder and the Light From an Ancient Sky - something like The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down but more expansive and mind blowing information about the tribe on whose land I live. Native cultures are such a different speed from the way we live that it awes and depresses me that they are right here but are largely invisible to most White Americans.

Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy - this has changed the way I view my yard, what I do in it, what I plan to do in it and how I view habitat loss and climate change.

Shakespeare by Another Name - I never knew about the Shakespearean authorship controversy. Like fireworks in my mind to find out the probable author.

Does anyone else suffer from the condition of reading books, loving them, learning from them and then promptly forgetting the title? I have to start writing things down.

Yes! I use Goodreads to track the books I've read, and it's been super helpful.

I have a "To Read" list to keep track of all the book recommendations I pick up along the way. (That list is HUGE and feels like I'm a bit of a hoarder, but it helps me manage my Holds list for library e-books and audiobooks via Libby.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“The Blessing a B- “ Jewish-centric but incredibly useful for parents of tweens and teens. Changed my parenting for the better.

+1

Her first book ("Blessings of a Skinned Knee") made a huge difference for me when my kids were smaller. Literally, way back when my oldest was first learning to handle a spoon.

The book reshaped how I saw my role as a parent, and set me on a path of "allowing" my kids to have low-stakes opportunities to experience and manage feelings of frustration, disappointment, failure etc.

Before reading that one, I also learned a TON from Jon and Myla Kabat-Zinn's book about Mindful Parenting. It's a wonderful book!

https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Blessings-Inner-Mindful-Parenting/dp/0786883146

[Anonymous]

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Read it when I was about 16 or 17 and it changed my views on lots of things but particularly religion.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
Read it last year, very powerful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo: a Child, an Elder and the Light From an Ancient Sky - something like The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down but more expansive and mind blowing information about the tribe on whose land I live. Native cultures are such a different speed from the way we live that it awes and depresses me that they are right here but are largely invisible to most White Americans.

Nature’s Best Hope by Doug Tallamy - this has changed the way I view my yard, what I do in it, what I plan to do in it and how I view habitat loss and climate change.

Shakespeare by Another Name - I never knew about the Shakespearean authorship controversy. Like fireworks in my mind to find out the probable author.

Does anyone else suffer from the condition of reading books, loving them, learning from them and then promptly forgetting the title? I have to start writing things down.

Thank you for this detailed answer. The first book you mention, The Girl who Sang to the Buffalo I'm going to get.

You’re welcome. Be prepared, it’s wander. I enjoyed the wander, but it really takes its time. And evidently parts of it are fictionalized? I’m not sure how much an author needs to change/invent for it to be considered fiction, but it’s in the non-fiction area.

I looked this up and no offense at all, but I am actually going to skip it, mainly because it's written by a white guy. I'm reading a lot of Native American writers at the moment, poets, non-fiction, fiction and I think the white man's perspective is less pressing.

[Anonymous]

Black Like Me - John Griffin Read this when I was 10 years old and it deeply affected me.

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess. The futuristic world of violence has become reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:John Robbins - Diet for a New America

Twenty two years ago this completely changed the way I ate and I never went back.

did you become vegan?

I did become vegan and have never once strayed in the 22 years.

[Anonymous]

I have been meaning to read "The Denial of Death" for awhile but not gotten around to it. Has anybody read this one?

[Anonymous]

I’ve seen all of mine on this thread so far:

The untethered soul - I don’t even think I finished it but the central premise radically changed my thinking
When breath becomes air - I think I sat in silence for an hour after finishing it
Emotionally immature mother - put a lot of my pain in perspective and kick started healing
Crossing to safety - beautiful and moving

[Anonymous]

I am going to add a book that doesn't necessarily fit in with the heavy recommendations here - What Alice forgot by Liane Moriarty. It is a fluff fiction book but the I found the premise fascinating and still think about it years later. A fall leaves a woman with amnesia for the past 10 years of her life. Instead of thinking about being separated from her husband after an alleged affair, she is transported back to her blissful, newlywed days and can't understand why her husband is acting so strange and estranged. For anyone who has been married for a long time, it really makes you think about how your relationship changes over time. The disparity from the newlywed days to 10 years later because of normal life events is mind-blowing. Although silly fiction, this book made me think about how things would be if I was in this situation and it made me appreciate my husband so much more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am going to add a book that doesn't necessarily fit in with the heavy recommendations here - What Alice forgot by Liane Moriarty. It is a fluff fiction book but the I found the premise fascinating and still think about it years later. A fall leaves a woman with amnesia for the past 10 years of her life. Instead of thinking about being separated from her husband after an alleged affair, she is transported back to her blissful, newlywed days and can't understand why her husband is acting so strange and estranged. For anyone who has been married for a long time, it really makes you think about how your relationship changes over time. The disparity from the newlywed days to 10 years later because of normal life events is mind-blowing. Although silly fiction, this book made me think about how things would be if I was in this situation and it made me appreciate my husband so much more.

I am OP and I think amnesia stories can be fascinating. I've not read this one, but Nicole Krauss' Man Walks Into a Room (2002) is amazing and starts on the same premise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am going to add a book that doesn't necessarily fit in with the heavy recommendations here - What Alice forgot by Liane Moriarty. It is a fluff fiction book but the I found the premise fascinating and still think about it years later. A fall leaves a woman with amnesia for the past 10 years of her life. Instead of thinking about being separated from her husband after an alleged affair, she is transported back to her blissful, newlywed days and can't understand why her husband is acting so strange and estranged. For anyone who has been married for a long time, it really makes you think about how your relationship changes over time. The disparity from the newlywed days to 10 years later because of normal life events is mind-blowing. Although silly fiction, this book made me think about how things would be if I was in this situation and it made me appreciate my husband so much more.

I am OP and I think amnesia stories can be fascinating. I've not read this one, but Nicole Krauss' Man Walks Into a Room (2002) is amazing and starts on the same premise.

Thanks, I will look into this one. I also added all of the books mentioned in this thread to my wish list. Thanks OP for starting this conversation and thanks to everyone for all of the great recommendations. I have enough books on my list now to keep me busy for the next year.

[Anonymous]

What are People For? by Wendell Berry

[Anonymous]

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong. FYI I am white.

[Anonymous]

Erik Bern, Games People Play and then the one about life scenarios

[Anonymous]

Feeling Good Handbook
The Mindful Way through Depression