Why am I passionate about this?

Officially, I’m an award-winning author and specialist in the fields of psychology, trauma, and spirituality. I’m also a professionally trained therapist, clinical ethicist, and researcher. Ultimately, I’m an ardent believer that the same life that brings us joy also (sometimes) brings us pain. More importantly, that every aspect of life has a role to play in making us who we are today and who we’ll be tomorrow. We don’t always have control over the events in life, but the script we live by is ours to write—and write it we must, as only we can. I’m also a three-time heart attack survivor.


I wrote

Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit

By Michele DeMarco,

Book cover of Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit

What is my book about?

With poignant wisdom and refreshing insight, Dr. Michele DeMarco explodes traditional myths of resilience and shows what it takes to…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Year of Magical Thinking

Michele DeMarco Why did I love this book?

Joan Didion’s book is heralded for its bravery, clarity, and confessional witness about grief and loss. Indeed, it’s all these things, but for me, more importantly, this book paints a masterful depiction of the loss of innocence that comes when you lose something meaningful—like a loved one.

Particularly, it shows, with exhilarating force, the fragmented sense of time of such an experience, moving from Didion’s darkest moments of despair at the loss of her husband in the present to treasured memories of her life before his passing and musings about what comes now—in the future.

This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is for the savoring soul who, like Didion, possesses an inherent human desire for a sense of coherence and wholeness after life has torn it asunder.

By Joan Didion,

Why should I read it?

14 authors picked The Year of Magical Thinking as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From one of America's iconic writers, a portrait of a marriage and a life - in good times and bad - that will speak to anyone who has ever loved a husband or wife or child. A stunning book of electric honesty and passion.

Several days before Christmas 2003, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their only daughter, Quintana, fall ill. At first they thought it was flu, then pneumonia, then complete sceptic shock. She was put into an induced coma and placed on life support. Days later - the night before New Year's Eve -the Dunnes were just…


Book cover of The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness

Michele DeMarco Why did I love this book?

If you think you know yourself, think again. The sole (or really soul) purpose of Simon Wiesenthal’s book is to reawaken the conscience: Would you offer forgiveness to a dying young Nazi SS soldier for the brutal murder of Jews in which he participated, and that was consuming his conscience?

This question, at the heart of this book, is one Wiesenthal faced when he was in the concentration camps—to which he responded no. For decades, he wrestled with conflicting feelings about his decision, and in this poignant page-tuner, he inspires readers to consider the same. 

What particularly grabbed me was not only the eloquent writing and storytelling (the first part is a memoir) but also its coupling with the spectrum of responses from nearly 30 theologians, spiritual leaders, scholars, writers, and statesmen who offer their own feelings on the question of forgiveness (part two).

I especially appreciated that regardless of the abundance of opinions, the mystery of evil and atonement remains, leaving readers to muse for themselves on these most essential human challenges.

By Simon Wiesenthal,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sunflower as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Holocaust survivor's surprising and thought-provoking study of forgiveness, justice, compassion, and human responsibility, featuring contributions from the Dalai Lama, Harry Wu, Cynthia Ozick, Primo Levi, and more.

You are a prisoner in a concentration camp. A dying Nazi soldier asks for your forgiveness. What would you do?

While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion…


Book cover of The Power of Myth

Michele DeMarco Why did I love this book?

This book has long been a favorite of spiritual seekers, with its sweeping panoply of stories from antiquity’s gods and goddesses to the world’s wisdom traditions and more.

This is a book for those interested in the universality of human experience across time and culture—which I am. But even more, it opens our minds to the importance of a story itself.

Campbell helps readers understand that truth and fact are different—indeed, there are several kinds of truth: empirical truth, which depends on objective data, and also mythopoetic and narrative truth, which rely on symbols and stories to provide meaning.

By Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Power of Myth as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An extraordinary book that reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war.

The Power of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people—including Star Wars creator George Lucas. To Campbell, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” With Bill Moyers, one of America’s most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power of Myth touches on subjects from…


Book cover of To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Michele DeMarco Why did I love this book?

John O’Donohue is a man out of time—and yet a man in time in the most profound way. In his book, O’Donohue, an Irish poet celebrated for popularizing Celtic Christianity, catapults readers into the liminal spaces of our lives—times of transition, grief and loss, and life’s dark unknowns.

What I appreciated about this book was not simply that O’Donohue encourages readers to enter that daunting space (because we either should or must if we are to move our lives forward), but more importantly, that he sees this daunting journey as a blessing—a protective ring of illumination, essential for awakening and transforming; and a sheltering of grace that keeps our and other’s hearts open and loving.

This is a book not to read for narrative but rather for moment-to-moment inspiration. Keep it on your side table or close at hand for when you find yourself standing in one of life’s threshold experiences.

By John O'Donohue,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked To Bless the Space Between Us as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Irish teacher, poet, and author of Anam Cara draws on Celtic spiritual traditions as he presents a new compilation of special blessings and spiritual insights to offer readers comfort and encouragement as they make their way through all of the milestones and transitions of life. Simultaneous.


Book cover of The Book Thief

Michele DeMarco Why did I love this book?

Markus Zusak’s book is definitely not for the faint of heart or those easily bored: its narrator is Death, and the book is over 500 pages long. Not really the kind of book you’d think of for those aged 12 and up (as it’s listed). But it is one that really ought to be universally read.

The book follows two young children battling for survival in Nazi Germany. Entropy hangs in the air like Death’s shadow. Life’s harsh realities—like evil, heartache, pain, and mortality—are ever-present. In Max's (the young boy) dreams, he is boxing with Hitler and lands a punch, knocking the Fuhrer down, but soon he’s overtaken by the crowd.

This is one of the reasons I appreciate this book: winners sometimes lose; bad things happen to good people. And yet, the response to this existential injustice isn’t to become a mere survivor, victim, or martyr. It’s to grow in goodness, generosity, and gratitude as the young girl Liesel does over the decades, showing that even Death is powerless to hope and love.

By Markus Zusak,

Why should I read it?

33 authors picked The Book Thief as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

'Life affirming, triumphant and tragic . . . masterfully told. . . but also a wonderful page-turner' Guardian
'Brilliant and hugely ambitious' New York Times
'Extraordinary' Telegraph
___

HERE IS A SMALL FACT - YOU ARE GOING TO DIE

1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier.
Liesel, a nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street when the bombs begin to fall.

SOME IMPORTANT…


Explore my book 😀

Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit

By Michele DeMarco,

Book cover of Holding Onto Air: The Art and Science of Building a Resilient Spirit

What is my book about?

With poignant wisdom and refreshing insight, Dr. Michele DeMarco explodes traditional myths of resilience and shows what it takes to thrive through any of life’s trials. For the first time, DeMarco situates adversity in the context of “lost innocence,” challenging common notions that we can think our way out of despair and back to a “normal” happy life when the unimaginable shatters it.

Leveraging advances in emotion science, somatic psychology, neuroscience, and trauma and bringing the body and spirit into the solution as much as the mind, DeMarco offers a unique, truly holistic, and trusted guide for an arduous journey every human being will face—the realization of heartache, pain, evil, or mortality that comes after trauma and loss.

Book cover of The Year of Magical Thinking
Book cover of The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
Book cover of The Power of Myth

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Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

Book cover of Elephant Safari

Peter Riva Author Of Kidnapped on Safari

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.

Peter's book list on the otherness that few get to experience

What is my book about?

Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.

Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…

Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

What is this book about?

A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.

Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…


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