Of all the Claire Keegan books I’ve read, this one haunted me the most.
I devoured it on a long plane ride and would have read it again if I didn’t need to disembark. It won awards for Keegan who set her yarn in a small Irish village in the 1980s but its mannerisms and mood harken back to the 1950s or 1940s or even earlier. The parallel, intertwining storylines show the optimism of a working-class family set against a web of dark, religious complexity.
Delivered with moral responsibility, Keegan’s words are beautifully stark and never preachy. Due to its seasonality, it could be viewed as a modern rendering of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Apparently Cillian Murphy has signed up to play the lead character in the film adaptation and I can’t wait!
"A hypnotic and electrifying Irish tale that transcends country, transcends time." —Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers & Lovers
Small Things Like These is award-winning author Claire Keegan's landmark new novel, a tale of one man's courage and a remarkable portrait of love and family
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man faces into his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to the local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him…
As a life long seeker, I aim for equanimity where I’m fully immersed in life but not triggered by it so I totally related to this heart opening autobiography.
Written by a revered monk, a Tibetan Buddhist, who secretly left the monastery he presided over and embarked on an arduous, 4-year long period where he chose to be a mendicant and beggar. His noble goal was to tap into his essence absent of all the pomp, prestige, and privilege his original station afforded.
As he focuses on the minutia of his travels through India he intimately reveals his inner, spiritual journey.
A rare, intimate account of a world-renowned Buddhist monk’s near-death experience and the life-changing wisdom he gained from it
“One of the most inspiring books I have ever read.”—Pema Chödrön, author of When Things Fall Apart
“This book has the potential to change the reader’s life forever.”—George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo
At thirty-six years old, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche was a rising star within his generation of Tibetan masters and the respected abbot of three monasteries. Then one night, telling no one, he slipped out of his monastery in India with the intention of spending the next four…
Of the many, many self-help books I’ve read, this clearly written explanation of a therapeutic system invented by Dick Schwartz resonated in a deep way. It prompted me to find a therapist who trained with Schwartz and every session I have with her is transformative.
Apparently, during his sessions with trauma survivors, Dick Schwartz side-stepped a lot of the traditional psychotherapy training he’d received because many of the “tried and true methods” weren’t serving his patients. Instead, he devised a simple method which he refers to as Internal Family Systems (IFS).
It embraces even the conflicted, destructive parts of our personality/being and leads to total self acceptance. Like most innovative solutions, it is incredibly simple and wise.
Is there some part of yourself that you wish would go away? Most of us would say yes, whether we call it addiction, the inner critic, "monkey mind," neurosis, sinfulness, bad habits, or some other disparaging name. Yet what if there were a different way to approach these aspects of yourself that leads to true healing instead of constant inner struggle? With No Bad Parts, Dr. Richard Schwartz teaches a revolutionary paradigm of understanding and relating with ourselves - a method that brings us into inner harmony, enhances self-compassion, and opens the doors to spiritual awakening.
My book chronicles 25 different gardens throughout the world, from Paris to Palm Beach to Poughkeepsie, as it expounds on the theory that landscaping and interior design are two sides of the same coin.
A few characteristics of well-designed gardens and rooms include spatial awareness, strong proportions, an emphasis on texture, energizing and/or calming color schemes, strategically placed accessories, and a palpable sense of space. I also talk about symmetry, rhythm, informality, humor, harmony, flow, layering, suitability, and integration in an effort to bring the outdoors inside and vice versa.
I hope the book inspires people to personalize their own living environments.
