I’m not officially participating in Book Blogger Appreciation Week #BBAW but here are five books very important to me, which was the theme for Day 1. I promised Emma of Words and Peace I’d come up with some! (Follow this link to read her choices!)
1. Merton & Hesychasm: The Prayer of the Heart–The Eastern Church ed. by Bernadette Diecker and Jonathan Montaldo. This book on Thomas Merton’s embrace of the Prayer of the Heart (or prayer of quiet) led me to a wonderful trail of reading on this ancient and still vibrant way of prayer.
2. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Still my favorite “classic” novel, and Jean Valjean is one of my personal favorites on my Fictional 100.
3. The Mahabharata–one of the two great epics of India, and again a special favorite when I had the chance to write about its multifaceted characters and story.
4. Novena by Barabara Calamari & Sandra DiPasqua. I keep this book close by, for its beautiful way of prayer, and for the utterly gorgeous images it contains. I became a collector of prayer cards, old and new, after this book touched me.
5. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. This was one of the first fantasy novels I read. This author and this genre are still a regular part of my reading. This novel also represents my great love of fairy tales from all over the world. It’s based on my favorite fairy tale, “The Wild Swans,” and I cry whenever I reread it (the novel, and probably the fairy tale too!)
Thanks, Emma, for getting me to participate, even a little, in this fun way to learn about our fellow bloggers and friends!
The Fictional 100 
You picked a fantastic list of books. It must have been hard to narrow it down to only 5!
Thanks, Melissa! You’re right about the narrowing-down part. After I posted this, I realized that I could have included the marvelous “Kristin Lavransdatter,” as a nod to my fascination with Scandinavian literature!
I’m glad you decided to play along with us, even if it’s just a little bit! It’s been a really fun week (for me at least!) of discovering new bloggers and adding tonnnnnns of books to my TBR spreadsheet.
Thanks for visiting, Jenny, and I’m glad I jumped in for this one too! After reading your list, I’m going to move Fire and Hemlock wayyyy up on my mount TBR.
really neat, thanks for doing it!
Darn it, I could have have chosen book 1 as well, which would have combined Orthodoxy and what I was in my previous life. Interesting, I didn’t even think about that!! I guess the page is getting turned…
I’m going to look at your last one, as an intro to fantasy, of which I read very little.
The fantasy genre includes so many different types of books, but the ones I like tend to fall into the subgenres of fairy-tale retellings, Celtic fantasy, and urban fantasy. “Daughter of the Forest” is at the intersection of the first two categories. For urban fantasy, Charles de Lint’s novels and short story collections, especially his “Newford” books, are excellent.
Fairy-tale retellings does work for me. I really enjoyed Bitter Greens: http://wordsandpeace.com/2014/10/03/book-review-and-giveaway-bitter-greens-i-love-france-113/
Thanks, will check Charles de Lint
What a thoughtful and meaningful list. I love seeing how everyone’s choices illuminate who they are.
Thank you so much, Lory! You’re right–people’s personal choices, extending beyond their usual blogging themes in many cases, are
On your list I see another vote for Fire and Hemlock!–I really must get to this one. Jane Eyre, too (I can’t argue there!), and Robertson Davies’ Deptford Trilogy. I haven’t read that series but I did read “What’s Bred in the Bone” and “The Lyre of Orpheus” from his Cornish Trilogy and admired his writing voice and style tremendously. Thanks for this reminder of his art and inventiveness.
What’s Bred in the Bone is actually my favorite Davies novel. But Deptford is my favorite trilogy and that was a way to sneak in three books in one! And though I think Fire and Hemlock is Jones’s masterpiece, her whole body of work is extraordinary, so if another one of hers strikes your fancy, do pick it up.