PenPal Readers discussion

July's Theme for our Monthly Read is "Inspired by".
The book can be about an inspiring person (ie. Earnest Hemingway, Henrietta Lacks), or have an inspiring character (ie. Matilda, Huckleberry Finn) or be about an inspiring theme (ie. book on creativity, The Alchemist).

We want to know about the books YOU want to read most, for inclusion in the voting poll to finalize our July BOTM. Please comment below with your book suggestions (on this theme only).

We may not be able to include every suggestion in the poll, but we'll try to include a varied selection. Books that receive multiple requests and/or make for great discussion will be prioritized.

Hopefully this fits here. I would propose The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Basho, one of the most famous Japanese poets. This book is not only a poetry collection, but also a travel log of his journey: During this 150-day journey Bashō traveled a total of 600 ri (2,400 km) through the northeastern areas of Honshū, returning to Edo in late 1691 (From Wikpedia)

In later life Basho turned to Zen Buddhism, and the travel sketched in this volume relfect his attempts to cast off earthly attachments and reach out to spiritual fulfillment. The sketches are written in the "haibun" style--a linking of verse and prose. The title piece, in particular, reveals Basho striving to discover a vision of eternity in the transient world around him and his personal evocation of the mysteries of the universe.

I'd like to suggest my spiritual novel, Trusting the Currents. Although it is my book, I never expected to be an author or write a novel. And I feel more its guardian than its writer. It's been compared to The Alchemist, Beloved and The Color Purple. I started hearing the voice of a Southern, African American woman and thus began our journey together. Addie Mae, the book's narrator, has been the most inspiring person in my life, and changed everything I became. She is named after Addie Mae Collins, one of the little girls murdered in the Birmingham church bombing in the 1960's. Trusting the Currents has won 12 literary awards and currently garners 84 beautiful reviews on Amazon from readers of every age, race, religion, gender, and nationality. (4.8 average). Addie Mae has inspired recipes from readers (Laughing Cow Peas), tattoos of the cover's dragonfly on a reader who was turning 50, a priest in England was so inspired he read from it for his sermon. A woman wrote me she read it on a plane going to her sisters funeral and after seeing her sister in its pages quoted from the book at her funeral. Mothers and daughters read and shared the story's many universal life messages, relationships have been healed through its pages. Many people have written to me about how the book has inspired their lives in so many ways. Please see if you agree. Take a look at this soulful little book and its reviews. Thank you. Trusting the Currents

I'm going to just say in honour of a life well lived that I would like to nominate
A Brief History of Time

Among physicists I'm respected, I hope.
~Stephen Hawking

Life Without Limits by Nick Vujicic

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi