Dear Friends
Here are some books and magazines I recommend.
Please share your favorite books in the comments
…for us all to enjoy.
love, yoko
Newspapers
On my travels, I read the local paper from where I wake up – plus International Herald Tribune, If I can get it.
In New York City, where I live, I get all the local papers plus Financial Times.
Magazines
Among the magazines I currently enjoy are:
- The Economist
- Discover
- Scientific American
- The Week (NY Times)
- TruthOut (internet edition)
Books
Books I have read recently, that I strongly recommend for you:
Plundering Appalachia: The Tragedy of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
by Tom Butler & Doug Tompkins
MAO – The Unknown Story
by Jung Chang & Jon Halliday
India – A Portrait
by Patrick French
What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite
by David DiSalvo
Journey of Souls – Case Studies of Life Between Lives
by Michael Newton Ph.D.
Violence – Six Sideways Reflections
by Slavoj Žižek
The Warmth of the Heart Prevents Your Body from Rusting – Ageing Without Growing Old
by Marie de Hennezel
The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui
by Bertold Brecht
A First-Rate MADNESS
Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness
by Nassir Ghaemi
I kept reading thinking “great to know the other side of our leaders we didn’t know.” But then, in the end, there is a surprise! It shows the current scientific findings of the link between depression and empathy, we knew only as a moral and idealistic trait. Now it seems they found a point of brain that corresponds to empathy, scientifically, which is connected to depression, its cause, and also as its cure.
JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE
Why He Died and Why It Matters
By James W. Douglass
I was crying reading the secret letter exchange Kruschev and John Kennedy quite extensively. Together, they thought they could create World Peace. They almost did, just before Kennedy was assassinated. If you want to read all the correspondence between those two, there is a separate 200 page book of it. This book only mentions a few. But it gives the picture of John Kennedy we didn’t know.
WHEN THE WORLD OUTLAWED WAR
by David Christopher Naylor Swanson
Showing the effective campaign the activists made in the 1920′s by discovering that War was illegal. Did we know that? I didn’t.
BRAIN TRUST
The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease
By Colm A. Kelleher, Ph. D.
BLUE GOLD
The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water
By Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke
COUNTER CLOCKWISE
Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility
By Ellen J. Langer
AND JUSTICE FOR SOME
by Wendy Murphy
They might get angry with me for recommending this one. That’s how amazingly courageous the author is. Wendy is a professor at the New England School of Law in Boston. Served as a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School as a former Massachusetts Prosecutor who specialized in child abuse and sex crimes. She certainly does not aspire to climb the ladder of worldly success – such as to become a supreme court judge one day, since she dares to name all the judges in this book who have wronged in their profession. I got a little scared recommending this book myself. But her fight for mandatory sentencing laws for child sex offenders has been very successful in all fifty States in United States. It also gives credit to the American public which truly care for the issue. And why the blurbs all call her Wendy, instead of Ms. Murphy? Maybe she is fortunate to be a woman so they all want to call her by her first name!
IN DEFENSE OF FOOD
by Michael Pollan
It’s actually a book you have to read before OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA, by the same author. This book was the beginning of Michel Pollan’s revolution. A must read.
THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE
by John Perkins
John Perkins has surpassed his enormous best seller CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN (which I’m sure you have read already) with THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE. You need to read this one, too. If you are too busy, read the prologue and and the last chapter, TODAY IS THE DAY before you read the rest.
The True Story of the Bilderberg Group
by Daniel Estulin
Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis
by Christopher Cook
The Ancient Art of Self-Healing
by Yogi Bhajan and Siri Amir Singh Khalsa
Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual
by Michael Pollan
OVERCOMING SPEECHLESSNESS
by Alice Walker
THE ONE-STRAW REVOLUTION: AN INTRODUCTION TO NATURAL FARMING
by Masanobu Fukoka
ULTRAPREVENTION: THE 6-WEEK PLAN THAT WILL MAKE YOU HEALTHY FOR LIFE
by Mark Hyman and Mark Liponis
50 SECRETS OF THE WORLD’S LONGEST LIVING PEOPLE
by Sally Beare
I am 77 years old and feeling better than ever. This book has proved to me that longevity has everything to do with one’s state of mind. I just make sure to release all my anger and resentment whenever it hits me, and take a walk. I also dance in my mind to keep myself in good health. Smile in the mirror. Do that every morning and you’ll start to see a big difference in your life. The best advice is to do three things a day to make somebody happy. Do that for three months, and your life will be totally changed. These 77 years are just a prelude to my life!
HALF THE SKY
by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
This is a very important book. It is the only book about oppression of WOMEN in Asia and Africa, so far that I have read, that gives the work of women turning the oppression into opportunity for them to create economic independence for them and for all women of the region. Every book on the same subject I’ve read just described the horrors. But this is about the women fighting back successfully without bloodshed!
The title, taken from a Chinese proverb, says it all: “Women hold up half the sky.” This book is different from others about gender oppression: It illustrates how women in Africa and Asia are leading a courageous, strong crusade. It is a story of empowerment. We can learn from their wisdom. This book takes a sad song and makes it better, so to speak.
EVERY MAN DIES ALONE
by Hans Fallada
This is fiction, but it impressed the hell out of me even though I very rarely have time to read fiction these days. It is the New York Times book review “Notable Book of The Year,” as well. It gives the account of Germans who fought Nazism and were killed or put in jail for life by Nazis for it. A German citizen is killed just for dropping cards all over the city writing his objection of Hitler’s policies. His wife was also sentenced to death, and was in jail indefinitely.
Detox your World
by Shazzie
LOVE YOUR BODY
by Louise Hay
I recently shared this book with my daughter. Now we both read the affirmations daily. Love your body to make it happy and healthy and whole! Here’s an example of how easy it is to practice these ideas: I love to put my feet up at the end of the day and watch them looking kinda good. In my mind I say to them: “Thank you for taking me around for so many years to so many places—with happy steps. You’re the best!”
This is a very practical book. Every page just lists a part of your body and one or two lines of blessings you can repeat. Repeat out loud. When you need it quickly – like you had a rough night, your kidney is hurting, your liver is feeling heavy but you have to go into the subway/the tube as soon as you can – go to the pages in Louise Hay and just bless your liver and kidney before your morning starts. Isn’t that great? Don’t feel guilty if you forget to do it! I forget, too, you know. But my liver and kidney seem to understand me by now, that I do care about them.
Author’s website
THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC
by Daniel J. Levitin
This is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between music and the mind. Since our planet essentially moves to music, you might want to get to know a few things about music and its history.
THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA
by Michael Pollan
FAST FOOD NATION
by Eric Schlosser
I have shared ”Fast Food Nation” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” with everyone. Once you read them, you will never look at food in the same way. I believe that our food supply is not just a national issue – it is a global concern, and we should all be working together on this. I once heard that if every person in China jumped at the same time, the axis of the globe would shift. Well, we can shift the axis of this world by stopping the consumption of mass-produced food and focusing on organic and locally grown produce so we can all live longer, healthier lives while improving this beautiful planet we live on.
If this book doesn’t make you eat better, I don’t know what will. By changing from consuming chemically ridden mass-produced food to eating locally grown organic food, we can give ourselves a longer and healthier life.
THE SLAVE NEXT DOOR
by Kevin Bales and Ron Soodalter
Believe it or not, human trafficking happens here in the United States. It’s a disturbing phenomenon. Bales and Soodalter’s riveting account of modern-day slavery is a call to action. We can stop this crime. We must.
BEFORE THE DELUGE: A PORTRAIT OF BERLIN IN THE 1920s
by Otto Friedrich
Friedrich’s detailed book will show you how the most incredible culture of the 20th century was destroyed and lost by racism. Let’s hope we won’t do this again.
WAR IS A RACKET
by Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler
This was first printed in 1935. It was reprinted in 2003.
(read some here)
AN EARTH SAVING REVOLUTION
by Teruo Higa
(translated into English)
THE REVOLUTION IS TO BE HUMAN
by Walter Lowenfels
This title alone gets you in your stomach! I listed because of that. But the book was published in 1973. I just got it from a friend. I don’t think it’s sold anymore.
HOW WE MAKE DECISIONS – Your Brain Is (Almost) Perfect
by Read Montague.
THE WAY OF LIFE
by Lao Tzu
The Mystic Wisdom of Ancient China
CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HIT MAN
by John Perkins
This book gives you a true picture of American world politics that we have not been told. While at consulting firm Chas T. Main, Perkins claims to have worked as an “economic hit man,” cheating developing nations out of trillions by convincing their leaders to accept development loans that ultimately turned into massive debts.
It took a lot of courage to write this book because the author, an economic strategist, reveals that he was involved in swindling countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. He is a very brave individual who has stood up to share the truth; my late husband, John, would have liked that.
Author’s website
THE HIDDEN MESSAGES IN WATER
by Masaru Emoto
The mysteries of water.
Author’s website
CREATIVE VISUALIZATION
by Shakti Gawain
Author’s website
STUFFED AND STARVED
by Raj Patel
Author’s website
SKINNY BITCH
by Kim Barnouin & Rory Freedman
Authors’ website
THE BRAIN THAT CHANGES ITSELF
by Norman Doidge MD
I travel a lot, so when I arrive in a city, I like to go to good local bookshops and make a selection based on how I’m feeling and what I’m thinking. The book I pick usually seems to have a definite karmic connection! For instance, I recently hurt my knee because I fell on the street. But it didn’t upset me, since the fall came just after reading this book, which is about rewiring our brains to heal ourselves. I started walking, and it wasn’t difficult. Words are power. And a book is full of words. Be careful what power you get from it. But know that you do.
This is a book that everybody should read. It’s an eye opener. Giving many examples of the fact that our brain has plasticity, which most doctors don’t know. In fact, all doctors, at this point, are localizationists. When your brain is damaged, another part of the brain rewires itself and takes over the same function, making it possible for you to resume normalcy in your life. It is nothing short of miraculous. Get it!
Author’s website
ENDING SLAVERY
by Kevin Bales
Google link
AGELESS BODY, TIMELESS MIND
by Deepak Chopra M.D.
For your body and mind. I recommend all books by the same author.
Author’s website
THE FOUR AGREEMENTS
by Miguel Ruiz
The four agreements are these:
Be impeccable with your word.
Don’t take anything personally.
Don’t make assumptions.
Always do your best.
It’s the how and why one should do these things that make The Four Agreements worth reading and remembering.
Author’s website
COME BE MY LIGHT
by Mother Teresa
Dear Yoko, I plan to print this list out and read as many as I can. (I have read a few). The ones I ‘d like to add are: Autobiography of a Yogi and The I Ching. (Wilhelm/ Baynes) edition.
Others I am reading off and on : Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, Guy Murchie’s The Seven Mysteries of Life.
A book I found at a yard sale: Colin Wilson’s The Occult, A History
Thank you & Namyohoiengeko
PS I was just on the campus of Columbia last week showing it to my 14 year old daughter telling her that this is where I would love for her to study one day and now you and Sean are playing there next week. So close to seeing you perform yet so far! (I live in Memphis and I am a friend of Ebet’s….)
The Present – Spencer Johnson
I am currently reading the novel based on John’s youth by Jude Southerland Kessler, “Shoulda Been There”. It flows so smoothly. I am enjoying reading it because it is not written in a sensationalist way.
The Shack – William Young
It’s a story about an encounter with God… heart-warming! whenever i read that book, my emotions flow.. i can’t help it..
thank you for the book info, they all look very interesting. this is a great idea. also i want to tell you how sad i am about japan. we are praying for all the people there
I respect you so much Yoko for what you’re encouraging us to believe in ourselves. I hope that I can dig myself up out of the layers of falsehoods that I’ve believed about myself and find my true self in being creative. This is something I have just learned that I need to do.
I will read many of the books on your list because I believe they hold for me what you hope we can gain from reading them. To be the true authentic person that I am deep within my heart.
Thank you so much Yoko for the love you spread around the world.
The people in Japan have a special place in my heart tonight.They are in my prayers.
“Truth and Beauty: A Friendship” by Ann Patchett. I hope that you will seek out the book as it is a testiment to the devotional aspect of friendship. Patchett’s memoir of her friendship with Lucy Grealy (author of “Autobiography of a Face”) reads beautifully and left me with such a realistic view of the complexities one faces is sustaining a long term friendship.
La Vida, by Oscar Lewis -
an anthropological look at poverty in Puerto Rico and New York with a focus on a particular family – there is a close examination of the slum, La Perla, in Old San Juan, PR.
http://www.amazon.com/Vida-Puetro-Family-Culture-Poverty/dp/0829011536
(It is fascinating, kind of sad and scary, very interesting)!
It is very neat to be writing to you, Yoko Ono.
Thank you for these recommendations and for your twitter,
Elisa
I hope that I can find some of these books. I have read some: The Way of Life and Fast Food Nation. I agree I don’t know how anybody, could eat most of the food that we’re subjected to each day, after reading that book Fast Food Nation. As for my own suggestion, “Your Natural Diet: Alive Raw Foods” by DR. T.C.Fry & David Klein is great book about nutrition and having great health.
I absolutely love that Half The Sky is on this list. I couldn’t get through the book without crying. I’ll definitely have to check out the other books on this list!
William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives is a revelation, his writing insightful, informed, yet tender in a way. Can’t recommend it highly enough.
Three Cups of Tea blew me away too, AlphaGamAlways, where DOES that man get his energy from?!
Have been raving about The Wild Places by Robert MacFarlane since I read it for the first time last summer. The writing (about wild, beautiful places in the UK special to the author for various reasons) is flawless, poetic almost and when you’ve read it you feel you’ve been with him on a retreat.
Recently read the Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu). So full of wisdom, calm and peace. Compulsory reading for all would-be world leaders? If only!!
A lot of these are very good books.
Even though you say that you rarely have time to read fiction, I think you would appreciate the following books: The Lovely Bones, and Lucky, both by Alice Sebone.
I will have to make me a list because I see a lot of books on your page that I may enjoy reading my sister. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for the recomendation, i admire you Yokoono
My favorite book is ‘The Fifth Sacred Thing’ by Starhawk, a futuristic novel about a non-violent eco-topian community that is suddenly threatened by the totalitarian state. A very beautiful book about the nature of freedom and slavery, love and war and the future of the living planet.
I also enjoy Orwell, Angela Carter and A.A. Milne’s original Whinnie-the-Pooh stories.
Sorry that should be the “Recycling” not recycline. scusi.
The Recycline of Rosalie by Patricia McLaine. Wonderfully humerous look at lifeafter. Enjoy!
Anything by Henry David Thoreau. Even if I just happen across a quote from something he’s written, I can feel my mind and heart take in a breath, let it out, and smile.
The Help is an excellent novel!
Currently reading Eat Pray Love.
Some of your selections are very close to my heart- stopping the sex slave trade and re-learning what nutrition truly is.
I’ve been reading more fiction- trying to read up on past greats. Recently finished Toni Morrison’s, Beloved.
MAGAZINE: What to read next? Shelf Unbound indie literary magazine features the best of small press, university press, and self-published books. Each issue includes reviews, author interviews, excerpts, photo essays, and more. AND, we’re one of the first digital-only magazines. Check out what’s on our shelf. http://www.shelfmediagroup.com
THANKS TO YOKO ONO FOR THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE.
I just finished Three Cups of Tea it is an amazing and inspiring read !
Hello Yoko,
As always a great booklist of excellent reads,might add Amit Goswami worksthe self aware universe,as well as Ani Phyos Raw food book that Just one Best of Raw award in LA. Feb 2,also glad my Ink got to you@ Grammy Museum for the Mont Blanc pen signing.
Bests & Love&Peace to you.
Babette Annapurna Ory
Thank you for your suggestions. I recently read Wolf Totem and think everyone who cares about the planet needs to read it now.
I really liked “Skinny Bitch” by Kim Barnouin & Rory Freedman recommendation. I am going to read it. I feel so confortable to read about food stuff. I’d like to thank you Yoko to share wiv us your peace thoughts and make us feel hopeful about the world. I think it’s an great idea to share wiv us and I love you!
Peace,
Fernanda Valle, March, 2011, Fortaleza-Ceará-Brazil
I highly recommend Zeitoun, excellent book about a man who is prisoned during Hurricane Katrina just because he is foreign.
There’s a great new magazine called “UnCut” that features art from artists around the world. In a day when magazines are struggling to survive, I just love the quiet beauty of the printmaking, paintings, poetry and more. Search for it at MagCloud and see if you agree!
I really like the Phantom Tollbooth, Animal Farm and Hope is the Last to Die
A New Earth Eckhart Tolle
Yoko you are truly an amazing women and I want to say thank you for always believing in us as a community of positive people who can bring peace to this world.
Why you don’t try with ‘The Canto General’ by Pablo Neruda. Is a latinamerica pre and post hispanic related in poetry. Is a huge poem of the indian and history of every single pice of hispanoamerica. Is a several master piece for suren writed by chilean Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda.
A beautiful book !!!
pay attention: a river of stones
By Fiona Robyn, Kaspalita
The challenge: to notice one thing properly every day during January ’11, and to write it down. The result: more than 350 people across the world paying more attention to what was around them, and writing small stones. The birth of a new community of daily writers. A new movement – a river of stones. This book contains a selection of these engaged moments, written both by experienced poets and complete beginners, and a guide to writing your own small stones.
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/pay-attention-a-river-of-stones/15098358
I recommend the essays of Annie Dillard …. Particularly “Living Like Weasels”. (http://www.courses.vcu.edu/ENG200-lad/dillard.htm)
‘Grapefruit’, a book that I have loved since childhood.
The book I recommend is The First Sex…by Elizabeth Gould Davis….
Great idea, Yoko! Thank you so much!
My favorite book: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
“The Razor’s Edge” by W. Somerset Maugham
The Percy Jackson series is great aswell! I definatly reccomend it
The Four Agreements continues to have a profound influence in my life. I love your recommendations, Yoko, and will refer to many of them. The Alice Walker work is first. Thanks for being so generous with your heart, knowledge and resources. Respect. Bless.
A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman is a wonderful meditation on the body and a powerful narrative that all should read!
I want to read some one…but exist an Italian versions of these books?
Thanks *
Yoko, You are great!
So many great books – same wavelength almost as myself. Love the Secret of Water book, and the Michael Pollan books! PEACE to you, sweet Yoko.
Re: The Slave Next Door. My local PBS station showed an episode of the program Frontline: Sex Slaves, about the trafficking of women for prostitution, just last night (15-Feb-11). This station doesn’t always have the most current episodes of PBS shows, so this show may be older, but unfortunately still very much pertinent.
Women Who Run With the Wolves!
I loved What the Body Remebers so much I read it too fast and am re-reading it now. While there is much to learn about the politics of race and religion as well as politics it is a very delightful read.
Atlas Shrugged is a favorite. The Tao of Pooh is fun and The Televisionary Oracle, by Rob Brenzy is… different.
One of my favourite books is Alice in Wonderland.. and Veronica decides to die by Paulo Coelho.. It’s a great book !… Now I’m reading Ana Frank’s Diary .. I really love it..
Love you ! ♥
Peace ♪♫
Tani
“Come be my Light”…What a wonderful mirror for every human being, in Peace and for Love…;)
I’m reading Raquel Levinstein’s “En busca del ayer perdido” (in search of a lost yesterday). It’s about we all have traumas from our childhood and how to overcome them, otherwise the child inside us will keep on crying.
It’s on spanish.
The four agreements (Los cuatro acuerdos) is also a great book!…
I need to read the others…
Love you!
I just finished ‘this is your brain on music’….. Fantastic. Great reading list too