I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Joy, mystery and pain are all offered in this unforgettable memoir. Maya Angelou’s poetry lifts my heart, inspires me and conjures up a kind of fortitude. It moves me as much today as it did when I first read it.

A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit

This book was given to me at a time when my life was wide open with uncertainty and I wasn’t sure which way it would bend. In this collection of essays, Rebecca Solnit asks brave-hearted questions: Is it okay to get lost? Is being lost a problem or is it a beginning place for discovery?

A tapestry of personal memoir, meditation, cultural history, art criticism as well as an ode to the natural world, the book is revelatory. It inspires me to fear less.

An Uncertain Inheritance by Nell Casey

This book is intimate and brave reading for any family caregiver. It contains first person narratives of writers who have cared for someone close to them. It broke me open with gratitude for the guidance I found in their stories. As a collection, it invites us to sit around a campfire with a storyteller who says, “This is what I saw. This is what I learned.”

A House of My Own by Sandra Cisneros

Cisneros delivers stories and poems the world needs to hear. Reading her is almost a spiritual work for inspiring a brave heart. This book is an autobiographical look at her nomadic family, at identity and at longing for place.

For me, she helps to right a planet that can sometimes seem off its axis. I always feel more empowered when I read her work.

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

The world fell away when I read this book. The writing is gorgeous, the story provocative, transportive and emotional. Reading it, I got to be anyone and everyone by fully inhabiting these characters. I wept, I smiled. Krauss set my soul on fire. This book inspires me to bravely open my heart to all the ways being human is a high-wire act of love.