Comments on: Books that Inspire You

By: Laura @ no more spending

Laura @ no more spending — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:53:00 +0000

I recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, not light reading but very moving.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 02:34:00 +0000

Bitter is the New Black *was* funny, much more so than I expected.

I loved Gorgeously Green too – I credit it for starting my daily yoga practice!

A few that I just read and loved: The Necklace by Cheryl Jarvis, The Body Myth, The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer, and The Gospel of Food by Barry Glassner. Speaking of food, In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma were excellent too. 🙂 I did read another green book toward the end of last year – it inspired me to finally throw out some last cleaning stuff – but cannot remember the name right now ..

By: CelticBuffy

CelticBuffy — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:31:00 +0000

Eat, Pray, Love was pretty engrossing. I would second the recommendation on that one. Also try any of the Jen Lancaster books, the first is “Bitter is the New Black”. I found them to be laugh out loud funny.

By: One Frugal Girl

One Frugal Girl — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Thanks for all of the great suggestions. I’ve compiled a big list and I’m heading to the library tomorrow.

By: Pam

Pam — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:48:00 +0000

I recently read They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky and got to meet 2 of the co-authors. Not a light read, but you’ll be amazed by the determination of the human spirit.

By: pharmboy

pharmboy — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:39:00 +0000

I'm currently reading Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin, which is about the morality of business and making money. it's pretty darn good.

Also anything by th economist Walter Williams continues to rock my world.

By: Ssmith28

Ssmith28 — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Sophie Metroplois Series by Tori Carrington just a quick fiction read-but funny!

By: Kate@LivingTheFrugalLife

Kate@LivingTheFrugalLife — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:09:00 +0000

I can endorse all of lowincomelady's fiction recommendations for entertainment reading, the last pick being particularly lightweight, if not brief. If you like lightweight and entertaining but lengthy, you might also look into the two Kushiel trilogies. But only if you have a tolerance for occasionally steamy scenes. Not that they're anything like typical romances.

For more "respectable" fiction, I would recommend Old School by Tobias Wolff, I, Claudius by Robert Graves, and Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier.

Where nonfiction is concerned, I was inspired by Gene Logsdon's Contrary Farmer and Eliot Coleman's Four-Season Harvest. But then, I'm a gardener. One of the best bios I've read in recent years was Samuel Pepys: The Unequaled Self. Who Murdered Chaucer is a fascinating history/biography by Terry Jones. Yeah, the one from Monty Python.

Happy reading!

By: Juice

Juice — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:09:00 +0000

I too was bored by Shopaholic. I couldn’t finish it. Good recent reads include Sarah’s Key, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Jemima J and Little Heathens. Jemima is super light and fluffy, Little Heathens is nonfiction and fascinating if you enjoyed stuff like the Little House book series as a kid and the other two are historical fiction. Hope you enjoy!

PS Animal Vegetable Miracle is very good. Eat Pray Love is ok – the author is very self absorbed.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Hi – I’ve been following your blog for a long time and love your writing. As for book recommendations, I’m currently reading Eat, Pray, Love which I find to be very inspirational and uplifting – its the author’s story of traveling to India, Indonesia, and Italy. Another great read is Animal Vegetable Miracle which details the author’s journey into eating local for a year. I hope this helps!