Anura - Book list - Inspirational readings

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Book List - Inspirational readings
Life | Women
Please also see Animals Book List

Inspirational readings about life

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
by Richard Bach
ISBN 0-380-01286-3
"Richard Bach with this book does two things. He gives me Flight. He makes me Young."
- Ray Bradbury

Bird-like
poem by April A. Severin

Jonathan Livingston Seagull
I too, feed from wisdom's rosy breast
whir to freedom's white wing

Bach's book brings life to light reviewed by April A. Severin
    Richard Bach's Jonathan Livingston Seagull is an inspirational story about an individual's exploration of his unique self and pursuit of his higher purpose in life.
The tale's theme is universal. And the author's style is engaging.
    Past and present writers of poetry and prose have extensively used metaphors in which birds are likened to human beings and messengers, and flight is considered synonymous with freedom. Bach's use of avian metaphors is extraordinary. They are so fitting and effective that they not only breathe life into this story but they carry it through.
    Bach employs a bird as the messenger of his moral because the bird is, by its very nature, communicative. The bird is also a symbol of freedom. As an aviator, the author has an affinity for birds because he himself has experienced the freedom of flight.
    Jonathan Livingston Seagull is definitely not one of the flock. He is more human being than bird. While the other gulls are merely concerned with feeding their faces, Jonathan desires to feed his soul. He has a passion for learning and a hunger for knowledge. It is Jonathan Seagull's love of flying, and his soaring nature, which free him from his limited life amongst the stagnant seagulls of his former flock. This wise seagull teaches his flockless fellows that a gull's life is about flight and freedom ( it is not only about finding food ). He finds fulfillment through sharing life's lessons with other seagulls and discovers that this is his reason for living.
    You may wonder what life is about. The answer to this question comes from the beak of a bird and lies within the pages of this book. Jonathan Seagull is a spirited teacher with an important message for us. "We can be free! We can learn to fly!"
If you wish to be as free as a bird, soar with Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Something More: Excavating your Authentic Self
by Sarah Ban Breathnach, Author of Simple Abundance
ISBN 0-446-52413-1

Live and Learn and Pass It On
written and compiled by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
ISBN 1-55853-156-4
People ages 5 to 95 share what they've discovered about life, love, & other good stuff.

Gift from the Sea
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
ISBN 0-394-72455-0
" Perhaps this is the most important thing for me to take back from beach-living: simply the memory that each cycle of the tide is valid; each cycle of the wave is valid; each cycle of a relationship is valid. And my shells? I can sweep them all into my pocket. They are only there to remind me that the sea recedes and returns eternally."
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Odysseys: Meditations and Thoughts For A Life's Journey
by Freeman Patterson
ISBN 0002557657 (hc)

Symbols - Guiding Lights Along the Journey of Life
by Kathleen R. Prata
ISBN 0-87604-379-1
"This new book invites us to use personal symbols to fulfill our soul's mission."
- A.R.E. Press

Notes to Myself: My struggle to become a person.
by Hugh Prather
ISBN 0-553-20946-9
"A treasury of thoughtful and insightful reminders." - Bantam Books
One of my favourite Hugh Prather quotes is as follows: "I am not interested so much in what I do with my hands or words as what I do with my feelings. I want to live from the inside out, not from the outside in."

Inspirational readings about women

Phenomenal Woman: Four poems celebrating women
by Maya Angelou
ISBN 0-679-43924-2 (hc)
This is also available as an audiobook (1 cassette) ISBN 0-679-43955-2
I highly recommend "Phenomenal Woman" and "And Still I Rise".

Circle of Stones: Woman's Journey to Herself
by Judith Duerk
ISBN 0-931055-66-0

Sit Listening to the Wind: Woman's Encounter with Herself
by Judith Duerk
ISBN

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype
by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D.
ISBN 0-345-39681-2
"The work of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, rooted in old and deep family rites and in archetypal psychology, recognizes that the soul is not lost, but has been put to sleep ... This volume reminds us that we are nature for all our sophistication, that we are still wild, and the recovery of that vitality will itself set us right in the world."
- Thomas Moore, Author of Care of the Soul

The 13 Original Clan Mothers: Your Sacred Path to Discovering the Gifts, Talents and Abilities of the Feminine Through the Ancient Teachings of the Sisterhood
by Jamie Sams
ISBN 0-06-250756-7
"Contains the wisdom we needed to be told when there was no language ... Ancient though [the stories] may be, our need for nurturing the spirit remains the same."
- Whole Life Times