{"id":544,"date":"2009-06-22T14:03:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-22T14:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/five-spiritual-but-fun-summer-books.html"},"modified":"2009-06-22T14:03:39","modified_gmt":"2009-06-22T14:03:39","slug":"five-spiritual-but-fun-summer-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/five-spiritual-but-fun-summer-books.html","title":{"rendered":"Five Spiritual (But Fun) Summer Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"enlightenidiot.jpg\"<\/span>With Holly asking for some good summer reading<\/a>, I put together a little list of some new and perennial favorites in the spiritualish-but-not-religious realm. Herewith:<\/p>\n

1) “Enlightenment for Idiots” <\/a> by Anne Cushman<\/p>\n

I keep re-reading this funny, moving novel about an American woman’s spiritual journey in India. Out in paperback on July 9th.<\/p>\n

2) “Holy Cow”<\/a> by Sarah MacDonald<\/p>\n

A smart, engaging non-fiction<\/em> tale of a journalist’s tumultuous travels through India.<\/p>\n

3) “The Year of Magical Thinking”<\/a> by Joan Didion<\/p>\n

Not exactly a knee-slapper, but if you haven’t read this exquisitely rendered, excruciating story of loss, you must.<\/p>\n

4) “When You’re Falling, Dive”<\/a> by Mark Matousek<\/p>\n

This narrative weaves memoir with interviews from well-known and everyday people about how they cope with life’s butt-kicking travails–from a blind photographer to poet Stanley Kunitz to Joan Didion.<\/p>\n

5) “The Compassionate Life” <\/a>by Marc Ian Barasch<\/p>\n

I haven’t finished this one yet, but I’ll tell you that the first quarter is a tight, persuasive, poetic case for being more kind. Not sappy-kind, but genuinely compassionate. <\/p>\n

(Bonus: “Eat, Pray, Love”<\/a> by Elizabeth Gilbert. Ok, you’ve probably already read this obvious choice, but if not, it’s a silky, fun ride through divorce, God, food, sex, enlightenment, and love.)<\/p>\n

Any favorites to add?<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Holly asking for some good summer reading, I put together a little list of some new and perennial favorites in the spiritualish-but-not-religious realm. Herewith: 1) “Enlightenment for Idiots”  by Anne Cushman I keep re-reading this funny, moving novel about an American woman’s spiritual journey in India. Out in paperback on July 9th. 2) “Holy Cow”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-valerie-reiss","category-holistic-living"],"yoast_head":"\nFive Spiritual (But Fun) Summer Books - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2009\/06\/five-spiritual-but-fun-summer-books.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five Spiritual (But Fun) Summer Books - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With Holly asking for some good summer reading, I put together a little list of some new and perennial favorites in the spiritualish-but-not-religious realm. 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She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}