BOOKS!
I love love books (my first email was: bookworm10 which was very hard to say to all my Spanish friends and I got some weird looks after spelling it out)
Some of my favorite books are historical fiction focused specifically on WWII and the Holocaust (though not as fun when you start dreaming you are part of the story with those books!) I've been reading numerous international development books (highlight: Bottom Billion) and good classics.
We have a great library at the Peace Corps office where volunteers leave their books for others to read and over time it has grown quite a bit. I will only highlight 4 books that I have read more than once during my 21 months in Costa Rica:
1. Mountains beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
I read this book twice in 3 weeks and the passion of Paul Farmer towards the poor and his view of the value of the individual while still aspiring to maximize his impact has and is still challenging me. I had many sleepless nights wrestling with things after reading this book and it has been a pivotal book in my life.
2. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
I probably read this book once a year. It allows me to take a step back and view some of the things I let myself get tangled up in on a day to day basis.
Description from Amazon: The writer finds himself in Hell boarding a bus bound for Heaven. The amazing opportunity is that anyone who wants to stay in Heaven, can. This is the starting point for an extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment. Lewis's revolutionary idea is the discovery that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside
3. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
Just love this book.
4. Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
So so good! Also this book really makes you think and reflect on so many points.
Amazon: It is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving Karamazov and his three sons - the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the social and spiritual strivings in what was both a golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.
Sorry no pictures today!
What books have been influential in your lives? Please post!
<3 you so much. amazing book choices. you need to get your hands on half the sky. it brought me to tears with the accounts of what some women and girls go through throughout the world, yet somehow found a way to be empowering and hopeful.
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