Susan’s Picks
Doorways to the Soul by Elisa Pearmain
Wonderful wisdom tales succinctly told with helpful suggestions for how to use the stories.
Telling Your Own Stories by Donald Davis
This “wee” book is the classic how-to book for telling stories written by a master storyteller, Donald Davis. Susan Lenoe (another master storyteller) highly recommends this book as a wonderful guide for anyone embarking on the art and adventure of telling a good old yarn.
Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg
An engrossing read. Somehow, Elizabeth Berg manages to write simply but eloquently about relationships! Great for a “quick read.”
The Bell, Iris Murdoch
Iris Murdoch’s characters are as complicated, as mixed up in their psyches as we are! They’re not always likable, but they are always intriguing. Descriptions of the landscape and buildings which the novel inhabits are both specific and evocative — brilliant, in a word. And her books are wickedly funny, too. The Bell is a good book to start on — it’s relatively short. Murdoch is a philosopher, so the lead character, Michael, does get into religious discussions with himself as he seeks to rationalize his ambivalent sexuality. Other good novels of hers: The Word Child, The Green Knight, and Nuns and Soldiers.
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
A wonderful, warm-hearted read about a motherless white girl in South Carolina in the 1960s who, through strange circumstances, finds herself at the home of three black, bee-keeping sisters. It’s an optimistic, life-affirming book, and you learn a lot about bee-keeping in the process. There is a magical quality about this book. I loved it.
