We chose this as a book club book and almost all of us became completely submerged in the time, place, and situation of the story. The book brought out the best in human empathy, with a wonderful amount of wit.
The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a major television series
From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel
In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and…
Like A Gentleman in Moscow, The Shadow of the Wind immersed me in a world I was eager to know more about. The story is both a celebration of books and an up-close look at Spain under the fascist Franco. The use of well-known places in Barcelona added plenty of sugar on top!
"The Shadow of the Wind is ultimately a love letter to literature, intended for readers as passionate about storytelling as its young hero." -Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Choice)
"One gorgeous read." -Stephen King
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been…
I often find myself annoyed with books on Buddhism. While most drop a few pearls of wisdom, many quickly get sidelined with instructions on how to meditate—or into the "religious" side of things, promoting dogma that has more to do with institutions and less to do with actual spiritual growth. A Path with Heart manages to mostly avoid those pitfalls, focusing the important things we are all looking for in spiritual practice. It gives nice overviews of different traditions, but with a skeptical eye toward what is actually helpful and what isn't. I did not bond with all parts of the book, but found it refreshing as a whole. Unlike most other books about Buddhism, this is one I will return to again and again.
Jack Kornfield's A Path with Heart has been acclaimed as the most significant book yet about American Buddhism-a definitive guide to the practice of traditional mindfulness in America today.
On this audio edition, Kornfield teaches the key principles of Buddhism's cherished vipassana (insight) tradition, and puts them into direct service, with the unique needs of the contemporary seeker in mind.
Birding for Boomers covers all things birding, from answering basic questions such as “Do I need binoculars?” and “What should I put in my bird feeder?” to tackling bird identification and picking out birding gear. You’ll find field-tested advice for overcoming physical challenges like failing eyesight and hearing loss. And if you think birding is too expensive, your location is too urban, or if no one around you is birding, Collard also helps you there! As your hobby grows—as it surely will—you’ll want to dig into his advice on sharing birding with others through community science, habitat stewardship, and bird conservation. Birding for Boomers is full of helpful checklists, colorful illustrations, and practical advice on everything from the best birding apps to planning local explorations and exotic “bird-cations.” Before you know it, you will be immersed in the life-changing experience of staring intently at the sky, waiting for a winged creature to fly by—because any age is the right age to start watching, appreciating, and protecting our feathered friends! Foreward Reviews says, "With its ranging approach and easy-to-follow advice, Birding for Boomers is a handy guide for all those—boomer or otherwise—who are looking to pick up an ornithological hobby."
