The Four Agreements- Don Miguel Ruiz

I received a forward ages ago with the four agreements. I liked the concept so much that I still have the email today. If you know the agreements I'm not sure you really need to read the book which goes too in depth about the concept behind each. I'll save you the time. The four agreements are these (by the way #2 if my favorite):

1. BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD- Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY- Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS- Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transofrm your life.

4. ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST- Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judegment, self-abuse and regret.

The Catcher in the Rye- J.D. Salinger

From what I understand the story is told by a teenager who is in a mental institution recounting stories and events in his life just before he was admitted. This is another example of a book written as if a friend was telling you something firsthand. It's a classic for good reason, but for as many times as the storyteller says "It kills me when......" you'd think he should be dead by the end. ;)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone- J.K. Rowling

I saw the movie before I read the book, but I recommend it that way. Having a face to put with the character's names helped me imagine the story better as I read it. The movie follows the book pretty closely, and the small difference in details doesn't take away from the story.

The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd

A cute book set in the south during the Civil Rights Movement. A young girl runs away with her black nanny (whom she rescued from a jail sentence) to discover as much as she can about her dead mother. The two find themselves taken in by a family of three black sisters who run a honey farm. In general, it was just a feel good story.

Nine Hills to Nabonkaha- Sarah Erdman

This girl served in Peace Corps Cote D'Ivore not that long ago. The book outlines her entire experience as a health volunteer in a neighboring country. Many things she describes are exactly the same here in Burkina Faso. If you ever wanted to really know what life is like here, I suggest you read this.

Little Altars Everywhere- Rebecca Wells

This is the prequel to The Ya Ya Sisterhood (which I have yet to read), but it seems like the movie was probably based on this book. It's written so each chapter is a different character telling their version of a story as it went down growing up in a household with a partying alcoholic mother, her husband, four kids and their paid help (a black family that lives nearby).

The Nanny Diaries- Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

This is written in the same style as The Devil Wears Prada where you get the feeling someone is actually talking to you about their story rather than reading it. As the title suggests it's a young woman who talks about her job as a Nanny in New York for a rich family. At times the main character makes it sound like the mother of the kids is a pain in the ass, but nothing she wrote drove it home like in The Devil Wears Prada.

The Red Tent- Anita Diamant

A fictional story of the biblical Dinah (Jacob's only daughter with his first wife Leah) and her family. Especially important is the red tent where the females congregate monthly during the new moon for 3 days and hold sacred female rituals. I couldn't help but feel like Dinah had a bond with her mothers (the 4 wives of Jacob) the way I have one with the women in my family. Recommend this as a must read for all of the women in my life.

The Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis

The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe; The Horse and His Boy, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; The Silver Chair; The Last Battle

By the 7th book I was tired of reading books written for children, but Lewis does offer interesting insight and wisdom for our younger minds (i.e., people won't suspect you of running away if you leave during the day). Ironically, I found some of the language a bit advanced (or maybe it was just British) for kids. The Silver Chair was my favorite of the series.

The Devil Wears Prada- Lauren Weisberger

I didn't get a chance to see the movie before I came here, but the book was great. Reading it is like listening to a friend's life story first hand. And if you didn't know already, it's a friend who works for the devil; an extremely powerful and bitchy editor-in-chief at a fashion magazine in New York.

White Oleander- Janet Fitch

The beginning and the ending sucked, but the middle makes this book worth reading. It's about a girl who's mom goes to jail for murder, their relationship and her life in and out of foster homes. I promise it gets good after the first or second chapter if you stick with it.

Here on Earth- Alice Hoffman

If I remember right, a girl breaks up with her hometown sweetheart (a boy her family adopted as a foster child) and moves away, marries someone else and has a kid. She goes back to her hometown with her daughter sans her husband and eventually gets swept back up in her old relationship which turns out to be with an emotionally and physically abusive man. It was alright. If you have nothing better to do then you might consider reading this.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay- Michael Chabon

This won a Pulitzer Prize. Interesting enough, it's about two cousins who start a comic book in America amidst the Holocaust. They base their characters on real players in Europe. A longish read, but definitely a good book to add to the collection.

Lucky- Alice Sebold

A true story about Alice Sebold's rape and how it changed her life. Aside from the rape I didn't find anything else about what became of her life very interesting or surprising. The boring details of her life (post rape) take up most of the book, and out of nowhere at the end she devotes less than 10 pages to talk about how she turned into a big drug user.

Trading Up- Candace Bushnell

The writer of the original Sex and the City book was good enough reason to get me to read this, but I couldn't get into it. Maybe it's living in a 3rd world country that couldn't make me feel sorry for the porsche driving, kaniving, Victoria Secret model character and her cry me a river life story.

How To Be Good- Nick Hornsby

The dumbest book I have ever read about a spiritual healer who turns a complete cynic's look on life around and even moves in with his family. The two engage in saving their neighborhood's homeless together as the wife tries to understand exactly what happened to the husband she used to know. Don't read it.

Summer Sisters- Judy Blume

Loved, loved, loved it! A story about childhood girlfriends growing up and their annual summer trips to a cottage, and how they grew apart as they became adults. It reminded me of my own childhood and going up north with the Maddock family every 4th of July.

The Da Vinci Code- Dan Brown

Basically part II of a series and just as interesting. I did however find a lot of similarities between the two books that were kind of annoying. Like the people you least expect end up being the bad guys in both stories, the token female in both stories basically plays the same role and what's with the use of handicapped characters??????

Angels & Demons- Dan Brown

I found this to be a real page turner. Think of Indiana Jones movies as a book. Interesting food for thought if you ever wondered about certain religious symbols and where they came from.

The Kiterunner- Khaled Hosseini

An amazing story about two childhood friends, and the emotional challenges one of them faced as he struggled with a difference in their ethnicity and class as he grew up. I loved everything about this book. Read it!

The Girl's Guide to Hunting & Fishing- Melissa Bank

A series of short stories that seemed link together by a universal character in the beginning of the book, but turned out not to be by the end. If I remember right, the stories were about this girl's experiences with men. I got nothing out of it.

Alive- Piers Paul Read

True story about a team of rugby players whose plane crashed in the mountains in South America in the middle of a blizzard. They had to resort to cannabilism of the dead passengers to stay alive. It paid off as many actually survived the terrible 72-day-long experience. The whole thing was fascinating and certainly relatable as you read about each person's emotional and moral struggles.

On The Road- Jack Kerouac

Hated it. Maybe it's a guy's book, but the story about a guy traversing back and forth across the country did nothing for me. Once the characters started getting into drugs it reminded me of the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (I never read the book), and I found it hard to follow.