5 Brilliant Books About the Human Spirit

Getting lost in a good book is one of the greatest ways to spend a beautiful day, a dreary day, or just about any day. But what about finding yourself in a good book? If you're looking for entertainment, self-actualization, or something new to learn, check out these five books.  

1. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert 

Elizabeth Gilbert's most recent novel, City of Girls, is part retrospective and part coming of age. It's a gorgeous love letter to a lost era and New York City. Focusing on one woman's youth and the events that shifted her life's story, Gilbert paints a vivid picture of life in 1940s New York at its most glamorous.  

"The town was perched proud and solid on its nest of granite, tucked between its two dark rivers. Its stacks of skyscrapers glittered like columns of fireflies in the velvety summer air. We crossed over the silent, commanding bridge – broad and long as a condor's wing – and entered the city. This dense place. This meaningful place. The greatest metropolis the world has ever known– or at least that's what I've always thought.  

I was overcome with reverence. 

I would plant my little life there and never abandon it again."  
 

2. Inheritance by Dani Shapiro

What if you took a DNA test and found out your father wasn't a biological relative?
 

That's what happened to author Dani Shapiro, and she transformed her personal and contemporary experience into a stunning non-fiction literary page-turner. Shapiro's New York Times best seller, Inheritance, is poignant and beautifully written, keeping keep you on the edge of your seat while pondering life's big questions.  

"After listening to my entire story, he quietly said: 'You can say, This is impossible, terrible.'Or you can say, This is beautiful, wonderful. You can imagine that you're in exile. Or you can imagine that you have more than one home.'" 

3. The Beautiful No by Sheri Salata

Are you living the life you want? Or do the vague ghosts of discontent knock on your door at night and whisper to you of dreams long abandoned?

The Beautiful No might be the book you need. This transformational guidebook by Sheri Salata (former executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show) is the fabulous inspiration for anyone who needs an empowering story of how life changing experiences can happen at any age, even after 50.

"Maybe it's time to rethink everything about what is possible. Maybe it's time to dust off your dreams and give yourself permission to ask the ‘what about' question: What about the life I always wanted?" 

4. Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss

Spirit can feel like an elusive concept at times, but this book by best-selling author and medical intuitive Caroline Myss anchors spirit discussion in a very real way to the stages of power and healing.

Anatomy of the Spirit brings together multiple spiritual and physical practices to create an excellent and holistic look into our well-being. Myss provides tools to inquire and develop wholeness.  

"The wounded child sees the Divine as operating a reward and punishment system, with humanly logical explanations for all painful experiences. The wounded child does not understand that within all experiences, no matter how painful, lie spiritual insights. So long as we think like a wounded child, we will love conditionally and with great fear of loss." 

5. Love Big by Rozella Haydée White

"Healing doesn't happen overnight. It requires ongoing care and attention."

If you just said "amen" then you're going to love this book by leadership coach Rozella Haydée White, who writes about relationships, division and the ways in which healing ourselves might be the most radical thing we can do to create change. 

"Knowing something and believing something are very different than living something. No matter how much we know, this knowledge doesn't always translate into action."