35 books like Without a Penny in my Pocket

By Marie S.C. Castro,

Here are 35 books that Without a Penny in my Pocket fans have personally recommended if you like Without a Penny in my Pocket. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA

Walt Goodridge Author Of There's Something About Saipan! A Visitor’s Guide To Fantastic Facts, Tantalizing Trivia, Startling Statistics, Dramatic Diaries and Hair-raising History From America’s Most Colorful Island Territory!

From my list on life on Saipan.

Why am I passionate about this?

I discovered Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, on one December night in 2005 through my friend, Ken, who had visited the island for business and raved about his experience. Two months later, I was on an 8,000-mile, one-way flight to escape the NY rat race and live out my dream life in this tropical Pacific paradise! It's been one of the best decisions of my life! I've since fallen in love with the lifestyle, people, culture, and history of the islands. These authors are people I've met or have seen around the island. Their books offer a unique peek inside life on the islands of this little-known US commonwealth!

Walt's book list on life on Saipan

Walt Goodridge Why did Walt love this book?

Author Doug Mack took the time to visit and immerse himself in various communities in the US' "not quite states:" American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and the U.S. Virgin Islands. I know because I was one of the people who showed him around and shared my own story when he visited Saipan, CNMI. When I received my copy of the book several months later, I was as captivated by the stories of the expats and "locals" in the other outposts as I was by those here on Saipan. Doug's attention to detail, respect of local norms and inquiring mind makes for a great read. The Not-Quite States of America offers on-the-ground insight you won't get from any text book on the territories.

By Doug Mack,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Not-Quite States of America as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Everyone knows that America is 50 states and... some other stuff. The U.S. territories-American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands-and their 4 million people are little known and often forgotten, so Doug Mack set out on a 30,000-mile journey to learn about them. How did they come to be part of the United States? What are they like today? And why aren't they states? Deeply researched and richly reported, The Not-Quite States of America is an entertaining and unprecedented account of the territories' crucial yet overlooked place in the American story.


Book cover of The Rope of Tradition: Reflections of a Saipan Carolinian

Walt Goodridge Author Of There's Something About Saipan! A Visitor’s Guide To Fantastic Facts, Tantalizing Trivia, Startling Statistics, Dramatic Diaries and Hair-raising History From America’s Most Colorful Island Territory!

From my list on life on Saipan.

Why am I passionate about this?

I discovered Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, on one December night in 2005 through my friend, Ken, who had visited the island for business and raved about his experience. Two months later, I was on an 8,000-mile, one-way flight to escape the NY rat race and live out my dream life in this tropical Pacific paradise! It's been one of the best decisions of my life! I've since fallen in love with the lifestyle, people, culture, and history of the islands. These authors are people I've met or have seen around the island. Their books offer a unique peek inside life on the islands of this little-known US commonwealth!

Walt's book list on life on Saipan

Walt Goodridge Why did Walt love this book?

Lino Olopai is a Carolinian elder in the community and also a friend. In fact, I ran into him this morning (the very day I write this summary) at about 6:30 am while I was jogging on the beach. The beachfront land beneath Lino's simple home has been in his family for generations, and because of that, he has refused to sell despite offers from corporate concerns and developers. Lino is also of a lineage with privileged knowledge of celestial navigation. He could set sail on nothing but a raft and—using the stars, waves, and movement of sea creatures as signposts—navigate hundreds of miles over the vast Pacific ocean to other islands! The Rope of Tradition is an account and knowledge that must be shared and preserved.

By Lino M. Olopai,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From back cover of book: [Topic of book:] "Indigenous Micronesian cultures and the issues and challenges confronting cultural preservation in the face of rapid globalization.' . . . "Indigenous cultures throughout Micronesia have undergone major changes over the six decades since the end of World War II, a situation that has been particularly acute on Saipan, the capital island in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. "The Rope of Tradition," written by Saipan Carolinian Lino M. Olopai with the assistance of cultural anthropologist Dr. Juliana Flinn, describes Mr. Olopai's longstanding efforts to document and better understand his rich cultural…


Book cover of Saipan: A Brief History

Walt Goodridge Author Of There's Something About Saipan! A Visitor’s Guide To Fantastic Facts, Tantalizing Trivia, Startling Statistics, Dramatic Diaries and Hair-raising History From America’s Most Colorful Island Territory!

From my list on life on Saipan.

Why am I passionate about this?

I discovered Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, on one December night in 2005 through my friend, Ken, who had visited the island for business and raved about his experience. Two months later, I was on an 8,000-mile, one-way flight to escape the NY rat race and live out my dream life in this tropical Pacific paradise! It's been one of the best decisions of my life! I've since fallen in love with the lifestyle, people, culture, and history of the islands. These authors are people I've met or have seen around the island. Their books offer a unique peek inside life on the islands of this little-known US commonwealth!

Walt's book list on life on Saipan

Walt Goodridge Why did Walt love this book?

Don A. Farrell's name always comes up (as it has now) in any credible discussion of publications about Saipan's, Tinian's, and Rota's history—particularly as it relates to World War II. His meticulously researched books have set a standard unmatched for thoroughness and accuracy. Don flies around the world to personally conduct interviews, visit sites, and scour archives and collections to produce visually stunning and informationally satisfying work replete with previously-unseen photographs, declassified documents, and accounts that even the history books often get wrong! Here on Saipan, you'll find Saipan: A Brief History at the American Memorial Park Visitor Center, our local library and bookstore, but also at gift shops, car rental companies, and even the checkout counter of local supermarkets! You won't be disappointed!

By Don A. Farrell,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

This well-made 112-page booklet tells the history of Saipan, capitol island of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, in both text and illustrations.
In a concise and accurate format, Marianas historian Don Farrell takes the reader from the roots of the indigenous Chamorros and Carolinians of Saipan, through their experiences with the Spanish, German and Japanese administrations to a graphic review of the island’s role during World War II. The last sections discuss the postwar Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and the birth and growth of the Commonwealth. The last sixteen pages provide a full-color representation of Saipan…


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Book cover of Our Northern Islands: The first expedition to the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument

Walt Goodridge Author Of There's Something About Saipan! A Visitor’s Guide To Fantastic Facts, Tantalizing Trivia, Startling Statistics, Dramatic Diaries and Hair-raising History From America’s Most Colorful Island Territory!

From my list on life on Saipan.

Why am I passionate about this?

I discovered Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, on one December night in 2005 through my friend, Ken, who had visited the island for business and raved about his experience. Two months later, I was on an 8,000-mile, one-way flight to escape the NY rat race and live out my dream life in this tropical Pacific paradise! It's been one of the best decisions of my life! I've since fallen in love with the lifestyle, people, culture, and history of the islands. These authors are people I've met or have seen around the island. Their books offer a unique peek inside life on the islands of this little-known US commonwealth!

Walt's book list on life on Saipan

Walt Goodridge Why did Walt love this book?

It is the dream of many indigenous residents of Saipan, Tinian, and Rota to visit—at least once during a lifetime—the remote "northern islands" of the 400-mile archipelago that comprises the Mariana Islands. High school student Dennis Chan fulfilled that dream as his prize for winning an essay contest. The contest—and the winner's participation in a week-long, first-of-its-kind ocean expedition—was timed to coincide with the Bush administration's designation of a 95,000sqare mile swath of the Western Pacific Ocean as an official Marine National Monument. Dennis, with the help of activist and blogger Angelo Villagomez, chronicled and published Our Northern Islands, an account (with photos) of the team's once-in-a-lifetime adventure!

By Dennis Chan, Angelo O'Connor Villagomez (editor),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Our Northern Islands as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Our Northern Islands is a first person telling of the first expedition to the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument.


Book cover of The Deep

Kristal Stittle Author Of Survival Instinct

From my list on featuring plagues.

Why am I passionate about this?

I live in sight of an extremely busy highway. On the rare days when I wake up to an empty house, I go look at the cars to confirm that I’m not the last person on Earth. There’s always been this part of me that assumes an unprecedented disaster is coming. The best way to soothe that fear, is to read (and write) books about it. Understanding how people survive, or not, feels like a great way to prepare for the unknown. Plagues are particularly bad, especially those of the biblical sense. Water turning to blood, swarms of insects, prolonged darkness, all of these are lethal under the right circumstances.

Kristal's book list on featuring plagues

Kristal Stittle Why did Kristal love this book?

As if a plague of memory loss that eventually makes you forget how to breathe isn’t scary enough, Cutter takes us deep under the ocean, to a lab where something has gone terribly wrong with our potential saviors. This is the most claustrophobic book I’ve ever read. You can feel the crushing weight of the water and the dark just outside the lab’s walls. There’s a wonderful sort of madness to the whole thing, and one scene, in particular, continues to haunt me.

By Nick Cutter,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Afraid of the dark? You should be ... Part horror, part psychological nightmare, The Deep by Nick Cutter is a novel fans of Stephen King and Clive Barker won't want to miss.

A plague is destroying the world's population. The 'Gets makes people forget. First it's the small things, like where you left your keys ... then the not-so-small things, like how to drive. And finally your body forgets how to live.

But now an unknown substance with extraordinary power to heal has been discovered in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Nicknamed ambrosia, it might just be the miracle…


Book cover of Confessions of a Pagan Nun: A Novel

Sheila R. Lamb Author Of Fiery Arrow

From my list on pagans, saints, and love.

Why am I passionate about this?

I just looked this up. The word is Hibernophile. I love all things Irish even though I'm American, and distantly, Irish American. My inspiration for the Brigid of Ireland trilogy met at the intersection of genealogy research and discovering druids. The novel Druids by Morgan Llywelyn which I read soon after The Mists of Avalon impacted so much of my future writing I love research, too. Finding my family roots—immigrants to the New York marble quarries during the Famine—was the impetus for tying these two things together. This—researching Catholicism in Ireland—led me to Patrick and Brigid. I live, teach, and write in the mountains of Virginia.

Sheila's book list on pagans, saints, and love

Sheila R. Lamb Why did Sheila love this book?

Kate Horsely’s writing is exquisite. Every word, every detail is carefully chosen and her language has a beauty all its own. The novel is about an Irish nun, Gwynneve, who was raised pagan. She sought refuge in Saint Brigit’s and is welcomed because of her literacy. She is to transcribe the words of St. Augustine and St. Patrick. She observes the crossroads of paganism and Christianity and witnesses the positive and negative of both sides. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but Gwynneve becomes caught up in the conflict as she records her diary of observations and pays the price for honesty. Again, I’m fascinated by the two belief systems, pagan and Christian, side by side, and searched for how that transition occurred.

By Kate Horsley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Confessions of a Pagan Nun as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A druid-turned-nun writes of faith, love, loss, and religion in this “beautifully written and thought-provoking book” set at the dawn of Ireland’s Christian era (Library Journal)

Cloistered in a stone cell at the monastery of Saint Brigit, a sixth-century Irish nun secretly records the memories of her Pagan youth, interrupting her assigned task of transcribing Augustine and Patrick. She revisits her past, piece by piece—her fiercely independent mother, whose skill with healing plants and inner strength she inherited; her druid teacher, the brusque and magnetic Giannon, who introduced her to the mysteries of the written language.
 
But disturbing events at…


Book cover of Matrix

Maia Toll Author Of Letting Magic In: A Memoir of Becoming

From my list on witchy women who love an enchanting tale.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was the kid who always had a fantasy novel in her backpack. Fantasy required I stretch my imagination, be open to possibilities, and understand different concepts of reality. This curiosity fueled my academic career, steering me from philosophy to Jungian psychology and, eventually, many years later, to an apprenticeship with a traditional healer in Ireland where I put my hands in the dirt and learned things that touched my soul, like how the growth of plants relates to the moon, ways to alchemize medicine making, and the psycho-spiritual aspects of healing…. You know, magic. I hope reading through this list brings you as much joy as putting it together did for me.

Maia's book list on witchy women who love an enchanting tale

Maia Toll Why did Maia love this book?

“She rides out of the forest alone. Seventeen years old, in the cold March drizzle, Marie who comes from France.” I read these opening sentences over and over. They both threw me off and enchanted me. What is this strange cadence? I wondered.

The song of the words wove around me and drew me into a world both political and mystical. In some ways like the Avalon of Marion Zimmer Bradley, in other ways, most definitely not. I have friends who are Lauren Groff fans. I have never made it past the first few pages… until I picked this book up. 

By Lauren Groff,

Why should I read it?

10 authors picked Matrix as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS
AN OBAMA'S BOOK OF THE YEAR

'Gorgeous, sensual, addictive' SARA COLLINS
'Brightly lit' NAOMI ALDERMAN

Born from a long line of female warriors and crusaders, yet too coarse for courtly life, Marie de France is cast from the royal court and sent to Angleterre to take up her new duty as the prioress of an impoverished abbey.

Lauren Groff's modern masterpiece is about the establishment of a female utopia.

'A propulsive, captivating read' BRIT BENNETT
'Fascinating, beguiling, vivid' MARIAN KEYES
'A dazzlingly clever tale' THE TIMES
'A thrillingly vivid,…


Book cover of And Then There Were Nuns: Adventures in a Cloistered Life

Alexandra Amor Author Of Cult, A Love Story: Ten Years Inside a Canadian Cult and the Subsequent Long Road of Recovery

From my list on memoirs about a challenging personal journey.

Why am I passionate about this?

My life is divided into two parts: before I left the cult I was involved in during my 20s, and after. Leaving the cult created a reckoning in my life unlike anything I’ve experienced before or since. It was both the worst thing that had ever happened to me, and the best. As a result, I connect deeply with others’ stories of grief, loss, and the challenging times in life that make us. As an author, I have carried these themes into my mystery novels. I hope you experience as much resonance from the books on this list as I have.

Alexandra's book list on memoirs about a challenging personal journey

Alexandra Amor Why did Alexandra love this book?

The curiosities we have about life can be deeply mysterious, and I’ve learned to love that about it. So, it seems, has Jane Christmas; her memoir recounts her exploration of the possibility of living a cloistered life. She feels compelled to take this journey and is willing to follow her instincts even if they lead to some unusual places.

I loved that this writer and human were open to exploring a deeply spiritual existence and then sharing what that experience was like. It’s not every day we get to go behind the scenes on what may be one of the most personal journeys of a human life.

By Jane Christmas,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked And Then There Were Nuns as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With humor and opinions aplenty, a woman embarks on an unconventional quest to see if she is meant to be a nun.

Just as Jane Christmas decides to enter a convent in mid-life to find out whether she is “nun material”, her long-term partner Colin, suddenly springs a marriage proposal on her. Determined not to let her monastic dreams be sidelined, Christmas puts her engagement on hold and embarks on an extraordinary year long adventure to four convents—one in Canada and three in the UK. In these communities of cloistered nuns and monks, she shares—and at times chafes and rails…


Book cover of Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

E. W. Skinner Author Of Children of the Night

From my list on other worlds.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a practicing Catholic, I believe in the supernatural and thus, other worlds. In the Nicene Creed, there is a line: “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible.” I find inspiration in both fictional fantasy as well as nonfiction stories of people encountering the impossible and discovering their personal stories or talent. As I grew up and learned about the lives of the saints I found myself engrossed in these real people who experienced miracles. It was this conviction of my own faith that inspired me to write a more secular, Catholic-inspired Young Adult series: St. Blair: Children of Night.

E. W.'s book list on other worlds

E. W. Skinner Why did E. W. love this book?

I sought out this book after Divine Mercy Sunday 2002. A visiting priest had shared St. Faustina’s story of receiving the Divine Mercy Chaplet from our Lord on September 13-14, 1935. Several of her dates coincide with dates that have significance in my own life, only mine in the present. God spreads his message of mercy through a Polish nun on what I would eventually discover through personal research, was the same dates that Hitler addressed youth in Nuremberg to inspire National Socialism. The diary gave me a glimpse of a real woman’s calling to bring God’s mercy to our world. 

By Maria Faustina Kowalska,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This bestselling book that birthed the Divine Mercy movement, one of the fastest growing movements in world today. This amazing narrrative will stir your heart and soul while it chronicles the experience of a simple Polish nun.


Book cover of Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

Dianne Hales Author Of La Passione: How Italy Seduced the World

From my list on italy and italian.

Why am I passionate about this?

Decades ago, I fell madly, gladly, and giddily in love with Italian. This passion inspired La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with the World’s Most Enchanting Language, which became a New York Times best-seller and won an Italian knighthood for my contributions to promoting Italy’s language. Intrigued by the world’s most famous portrait, I wrote Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, an Amazon Best Book of the Year, translated into seven languages. My most recent journeys through Italian culture are La Passione: How Italy Seduced the World and  ‘A’ Is for Amore, an e-book written during the pandemic and available free on my website.

Dianne's book list on italy and italian

Dianne Hales Why did Dianne love this book?

While researching Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered, I rented an apartment a few blocks from a house where Galileo lived in Florence. I could stand outside its door every day, but this book transported me inside—not just a building but a family, a home, and an era. 

Dava Sobel’s meticulous research reveals not just new dimensions of Galileo’s life and work as an intrepid scientist but the often hidden realm inhabited by his daughter. Illegitimate and unmarriageable, she entered a convent at age 13 to live in poverty and simplicity. And yet, as her letters demonstrate, Sister Marie Celeste’s soul and spirit soared. The ending—which I dare not spoil—has haunted me since my first reading decades ago.

By Dava Sobel,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Galileo's Daughter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of his daughter Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has crafted a biography that dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishments of a mythic figure whose early-seventeenth-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define the schism between science and religion-the man Albert Einstein called "the father of modern physics-indeed of modern science altogether." It is also a stunning portrait of Galileo's daughter, a person hitherto lost to history, described by her father as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me."

Moving…


Book cover of The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA
Book cover of The Rope of Tradition: Reflections of a Saipan Carolinian
Book cover of Saipan: A Brief History

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