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During my dog/house sitting days I’m enjoying some good books I’d like to share with you:

16 GUIDELINES FOR A HAPPY LIFE-the basics- by Alison Murdoch & Dekyi-Lee Oldershaw.  In this short but profound text you will find all the building blocks you need to create a happy life, both for yourself and those around you.  The guidelines are based on the inspirational values and principles that King Songtsen Gampo, a great Tibetan King in the 7th century, introduced to his people.  They are “ideas to make life better” and they played a cruical part in the transformation of Tibet from a warlike nation into a civilisation renowned for its peace and serenity.

TRAVELING WITH POMEGRANATES by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor.  A mother/daughter journal written during Sue and Ann’s travels between 1998 and 2000 to sacred sites in Greece and France.  A sensitive chronicle that touches on a mother’s new awareness of aging, and a daughter’s angst over the classic question of what to do with her life.  This book will find shelf space in my very cramped bookcase.  I need to have my own copy to mark up and highlight;  it’s one that I will go back to time after time.

ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MIRACLE by Barbara Kingsolver with insights from husband Steven and daughter Camille.  As only Kingsolver can, she sweeps readers along the family  journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it.  Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, AVM makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.  ABSOLUTELY fascinating reading!  Get it, read it, think about it. 

OLIVE KITTERIDGE, by Elizabeth Strout.  Still devouring this one.  A great read for sure.  Something about Olive resonates with me.  A  2008 pulitzer prize winner.  Start it on a weekend so you can finish it in two days!

So, there you have it.  Four of my favourites this week!  What are YOU reading?  Maybe it’s something I’d like to add to my list.