Books

These are some of my favorite books. I love to read, and hope you like these books as much as I have.

(Disclosure: If you follow their links to Amazon, I get a little bit of compensation as an “Amazon Associate,” but you are welcome to purchase them elsewhere, including your local second-hand bookstore.)

Neurodharma

Buddha’s Brain – Rick Hanson
Selfless Insight- James Austin

Family Life

How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk – Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
Mindful Motherhood – Cassi Vieten
Mother Nurture – Rick Hanson, Jan Hanson and Ricki Pollycove
Raising Happiness – Christine Carter
Raising Your Spirited Child – Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
Sensational Meditation for Children Child-Friendly Meditation Techniques based on The Five Senses- Sarah Wood Vallely

Psychological Tools

Awakening Joy – James Baraz & Shoshana Alexander
A Beautiful Mourning – Elizabeth A. Weber
Emotional Intelligence – Daniel Goleman
Fully Present – Susan Smalley Ph.D. and Diana Winston
Focusing – Eugene Gendlin
Happy for No Reason – Marci Shimoff
Integral Life Practice – Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, et al.
Nonviolent Communication – Marshall Rosenberg
Shaolin Chi Kung (eBook) – Marcus James Santer
Shift Your Mood – Rik Isensee
What We May Be – Piero Ferrucci
The Wise Heart – Jack Kornfield
You Just Don’t Understand- Deborah Tannen

Mathematics, and Physical and Biological Sciences

The Accidental Mind – David Linden
Godel, Escher, Bach – Douglas Hofstadter
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat – Oliver Sacks
The Mindful Brain – Dan Siegel
Mind in Life – Evan Thompson
Mind Wide Open – Steven Johnson
The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Bioidentical Hormones – Ricki Pollycove
Six Easy Pieces – Richard Feynman
Synaptic Self – Joseph LeDoux
Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain – Sharon Begley
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers – Robert Sapolsky
Wonderful Life- Stephen Jay Gould

Social Sciences

The European Dream – Jeremy Rifkin
Guns, Germs, and Steel – Jared Diamond
The Interpersonal World of the Infant - Daniel Stern

Selected Buddhist Readings

Buddhism has several major lineages – Theravadan (based on the original teachings of the Buddha), Tibetan, Chan, Zen, and Pure Land – as well as modern variations and syntheses of these. My background is mainly Theravadan, and I welcome suggestions for other lineages.

If  you’re getting  just one book
In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon – Bhikkhu Bodhi

Solid introductions, from a Western perspective
The Experience of Insight – Joseph Goldstein
A Path with Heart – Jack Kornfield
Wherever You Go, There You Are – Jon Kabat-Zinn

When the going gets tough
Being Peace – Thich Nhat Hanh
Radical Acceptance – Tara Brach
When Things Fall Apart – Pema Chodren

For meditative absorption and insight
Living Dharma – edited by Jack Kornfield
Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond – Ajahn Brahm
Practicing the Jhanas – Stephen Snyder and Tina Rasmussen

Theravadan

Being Dharma – Ajahn Chah
The Dhammapada – translated by Gil Fronsdal
Pure and Simple – Upasika Nanayon
Satipatthana – Analayo
Small Boat Great Mountain – Ajahn Amaro
What the Buddha Taught – Walpola Rahula
The Wings to Awakening – Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Tibetan

Carefree Dignity – Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Cutting through Spiritual Materialism – Chogyam Trungpa

Zen

The Three Pillars of Zen – Philip Kapleau Roshi
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind – Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones – Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki

Modern interpretations

Awakening Joy – James Baraz
The Buddhist Unconscious – William Waldron
One Dharma – Joseph Goldstein
Selfless Insight – James Austin

Other Spiritual Literature

The Book: On the Taboo against Knowing Who You Are - Alan Watts
Easy Death – Adi Da Samraj
How Can I Help? – Ram Dass and Paul Gorman
I Am That – Nisargata Maharaj
The Perennial Philosophy – Aldous Huxley
Remember, Be Here Now – Ram Dass
Talks with Ramana Maharshi
A Year to Live- Stephen Levine

General Fiction

Deliverance – James Dickey
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway
Haroun and the Sea of Stories – Salman Rushdie
Master and Commander – Patrick O’Brian. This is the first of twenty novels in this incomparable series of funny, profound, exciting, lyrical, and deeply insightful books
The Persian Boy – Mary Renault
Sweet Thursday – John Steinbeck
Their Eyes Were Watching God- Zora Neale Hurston

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Dune – Frank Herbert
The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula Le Guin
Lord of Light - Roger Zelazny
Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
Neuromancer – William Gibson
Startide Rising – David Brin
Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein
A Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin