Having been an unrestrained traveler myself, I’m fascinated by how being immersed in other cultures forced me to reconcile with my own basic beliefs about myself and about what it means to be a good person. The farther afield and more untethered I got, the more I had to really dig into myself to find common humanity with people of completely different backgrounds, beliefs, and opinions. Like the main character in Sylvie Denied, each of the young women in the books on my list leaves home seeking truth, inner strength, and spiritual connection as well as the means to be able to hold onto it once they find it.
Disturbed by the life that’s presented to her, Sylvie leaves a wealthy comfortable home in search of a more authentic life, yearning to find a truth she thinks is out there but that eludes her. Though she doesn't realize it, a traumatic early childhood event churns in the back of her mind, leading her to fall for men with a dark side -- including her husband Enzo. It's the 1970s, with few supports or encouragement for women, so Sylvie relies on her wits to forge her path. As Enzo's behavior turns volatile, Sylvie must find a way to escape with her daughter and claim her place in the world.
Plagued by loneliness and on medication for depression, Elizabeth Gilbert set off to find balance in her inner nature between devotion and pleasure. She had the talent, the drive and the resources to be able to devote a year to a journey into herself to find the kinds of things her nature craved – sensory pleasure in Italy, spiritual devotion in India, and to Indonesia to find balance. Her book is a combination guide to the outer places she went to physically, and the inner places she visited emotionally and spiritually.
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OVER 15 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
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'Eat, Pray, Love has been passed from woman to woman like the secret of life' - Sunday Times
'A defining work of memoir' - Sunday Telegraph
'Engaging, intelligent, and highly entertaining' - Time
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It's 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She's in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they're trying for a baby - and she doesn't want any of it.
A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own…
Torn up by the loss of her mother, Cheryl Strayed decided to hike hundreds of miles along the Pacific Coast Trail, marginally prepared for what faced her. Into the narrative of her journey, she interweaves stories of her life and her mother’s death with the day-to-day physical agony of walking the trail in ill-fitting boots and weighed down by an overly heavy pack. Her solitary meditations and the camaraderie of people she meets along the way lead her to focus on something other than grief, as she gradually digs inside to pull out a better version of herself.
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again.
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the…
Grieving over the loss of her mother and the relentless abuse of her father, Lily goes in search of clues about her mother, hoping to find answers in a place she thinks her mother may have been connected with. During this quest, she finds herself having to examine her attitudes about interracial relationships. Kidd includes information about beekeeping and the black Madonna, both bodies of knowledge that symbolically contribute to the theme about roles that females play in the social order.
The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings
Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina-a town that holds the secret to her mother's…
Jane Eyre’s story unfolds through her train of thought as she assesses in detail the qualities of the people surrounding her. Having survived a stifling upbringing within a brutal hierarchal culture that fosters barbaric child-rearing beliefs, she leaves her foster home to take a position as a governess and falls in love with her employer. When her values and beliefs are challenged, she leaves her post and wanders, by chance encountering people who can help her. Despite the implausibility of some of the coincidences in the plot, I admire the depth of Bronte’s intelligent critique of English society of that time, as well as her portrayal of Jane’s emotional complexity.
Introduction and Notes by Dr Sally Minogue, Canterbury Christ Church University College.
Jane Eyre ranks as one of the greatest and most perennially popular works of English fiction. Although the poor but plucky heroine is outwardly of plain appearance, she possesses an indomitable spirit, a sharp wit and great courage.
She is forced to battle against the exigencies of a cruel guardian, a harsh employer and a rigid social order. All of which circumscribe her life and position when she becomes governess to the daughter of the mysterious, sardonic and attractive Mr Rochester.
Young Englishwoman Lucy Honeychurch visits Italy only to find herself among others of her class, all of whom have brought along their prejudices. When a father and son of a lower social class offer her a room with a better view, Lucy’s chaperone is suspicious of possible lurid expectations attached to the offer. The Edwardian moral code, outrageous to a present-day American, presents obstacles Lucy struggles to overcome so she can comfortably befriend the men. Although Forster’s style sometimes left me confused as to who was speaking during dialogues, and the Grecian myth references aren’t in my lexicon, the story is emotionally compelling and the theme of assessing one’s basic cultural beliefs resonates today.
When I think of what life is, and how seldom love is answered by love; it is one of the moments for which the world was made.
Lucy Honeychurch travels to Florence, Italy, with her cousin and they were assured they would receive a room with a view of the River Arno, but instead are given a room overlooking a dull courtyard. A one Mr. Emerson and his son George offer their room, which as the desirable view, to the two ladies. From this opening sequence, A Room with a View sets off following young Lucy as she navigates through…
As a child, one of my favorite places was in the top branches of a tree. From up there I could watch the world pass by, remaining invisible. I could make up stories about the world below and no one would challenge me. The second best place for me was inside the story of a book, the kind that took you to magical places where children always found a way to win the day. I knew when I “grew up” I would write one of those empowering books. I became a middle school teacher and have since read many wonderful books for this age. Enjoy my list of favorites.
Where do you turn when the only adult who gets you, your grandpa, is gone, and the world seems to be in self-destruct mode?
On his 12th birthday, Thomas runs away to the forest he used to visit with Grandpa. It is dying. Will saving it from a deadly parasite bring him closer to Grandpa or make his world safer? Before he can find out, he is enticed into a magical world under an attack of a different kind.
Welcomed by a garden of talking plants, mind-reading creatures, tree-climbing, nature-loving beings, Thomas conquers the stinging, prickly hedge that guards the portal to this alternate world. At last, a place where he fits in. A place that needs him. But what about his and Grandpa’s forest?
“…a magical book...” John Perkins, New York Times best-selling author
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