My third recommendation list since Miracle Sunday (February 4, 2018). This list centers around recommendations I received in my first six months living in Denver, CO, May through October 2019. It is mostly Denver-ites as well friends from college, a therapist, and co-workers from Denver Children’s Home. It is my most ambitious recommendation list yet, as I’m hoping to get through Proust’s 7-book series In Search of Lost Time as well as the remaining 7 books in the sci-fi series The Expanse and several new podcasts and videos.
I’ve really enjoyed compiling and experiencing my friends’ recommendations. It’s allowed me to explore titles I wouldn’t have normally chosen. I’ve had an amazing time at seeing the connections of these recommendations to my life. And I’m know it’s great preparation for grad school. So, check out the titles below if you are interested in experiencing something new.
Feb 18, 2020 Update
Proust is out and Campbell is in. I’ve also added Cixin and Millman to the list. I just couldn’t get through the first Proust book, even after 3 renewals of the library book, so he, and his 7 book series, are taking a graceful exit from my recommendations list. Maybe I’ll try again in the future, who knows… As for Campbell, I’m re-reading it as it was recommended by my first therapist I saw during my divorce. It’s interesting to come at it two years later. Cixin and Millman are additions from other Denver friends. The full list is updated below.
DENVER RECOMMENDATIONS (Name, Creator, Recommender)
1) Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse – Marvel – Jon F. in Colorado Springs
“That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero.”
2) The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho – Aaron F. in Denver
“You can’t be the wind,” the wind said, “We’re two very different things.” “That’s not true,” the boy said, “I learned the alchemist’s secrets in my travels. I have inside me the winds, the deserts, the oceans, the stars, and everything created in the universe. We were all made by the same hand, and we have the same soul. I want to be like you, able to reach every corner of the world, cross the seas, blow away the sands that cover my treasure, and carry the voice of the woman I love.” pg. 151
3) The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield – Brian in Buffalo
“Anyone’s drama can be examined according to where it falls on this spectrum from aggressive to passive. If a person is subtle in their aggression, finding fault and slowly undermining your world in order to get your energy, then, as we saw in your father, this person would be an interrogator. Less passive than the poor me would be your aloofness drama. So the order of dramas goes this way: intimidator, interrogator, aloof, and poor me.” pg. 129
4) The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – Cebil R. in Evergreen
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
“I am looking for friends. What does that mean — tame?” “It is an act too often neglected,” said the fox. “It means to establish ties. To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world….”
5) The Mists of Avalon – Marion Zimmer Bradley – Justin R. in Evergreen
“I am dedicated to the belief that it is God’s will that all men should strive for wisdom in themselves, not look to it from some other. Babes, perhaps, must have their food chewed for them by a nurse, but men may drink and eat of wisdom for themselves.”
“There is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you.”
6) The Beat – Ari Melber podcast – MSNBC – Danny in Denver
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-beat-with-ari-melber/id1364113251
7) Easy – Netflix – Madison (DCH) in Denver
8) Cobra Kae – Youtube – 3E college trip to Sante Fe (group vote)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9DTWmhhxeKyYHL4mldGcA
9) Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens – Jon M. from college
“When cornered, desperate, or isolated, man reverts to those instincts that aim straight at survival. Quick and just. They will always be the trump cards because they are passed on more frequently from one generation to the next than the gentler genes. It is not a morality, but simple math. Among themselves, doves fight as often as hawks.”
10) The Tennessee Kid – Nate Bargatze – Chris L. from college
https://www.netflix.com/title/81002880
11) The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt – Jordan G. from college
“[The Goldfinch] can never have understood why it was forced to live in such misery: bewildered by noise (as I imagine), distressed by smoke, barking dogs, cooking smells, teased by drunkards and children, tethered to fly on the shortest of chains. Yet even a child can see its dignity: thimble of bravery, all fluff and brittle bone. Not timid, not even hopeless, but steady and holding its place. Refusing to pull back from the world.
“And I’ve written these pages, on some level, to try and understand. But-on another level I don’t want to understand, or try to understand, for by doing so I’ll be false to the fact. All I can really say for sure is that I’ve never felt the mystery of the future so much: sense of the hourglass running out, fast-running fever of time. Forces unknown, unchosen, unwilled.”
12) A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles – Jordan G. from college
“Showing a sense of personal restraint that was almost out of character, the Count had restricted himself to two succinct pieces of parental advice. The first was that if one did not master one’s circumstances, one was bound to be mastered by them; and the second was Montaigne’s maxim that the surest sign of wisdom is constant cheerfulness.”
13) The Marriage of Figaro – Met Opera – Jason S. from college
14) Overstory – Richard Powers – Meagan in Seattle
“The best arguments in the world won’t change a person’s mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.”
“You and the tree in your backyard come from a common ancestor. A billion and a half years ago, the two of you parted ways. But even now, after an immense journey in separate directions, that tree and you still share a quarter of your genes. . . .”
15) The Dispossessed – Ursula Le Guin – Deb in Denver
“So, looking back on the last four years, Shevek saw them not as wasted, but as part of the edifice that he and Takver were building with their lives. The thing about working with time, instead of against it, he thought, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts.” pg. 335
16) Tim Keller – Youtube – Ryan in Evergreen
This was an interesting recommendation. When I googled him, one of the first videos I came across was one where Mr. Keller said sex should only be between a man and a woman. While it is frustrating to encounter that attitude, I am not surprised. I just hope Ryan realizes that Mr. Keller is wrong on this issue. Homosexuality (as we understand it today) is not sinful, nor is it outside the created order. Derek
17) Liturgy of the Ordinary – Katie in Evergreen
“God wants to give us not just lives of holiness and prayer but also of sufficient rest. And perhaps a key step toward a life of prayer and holiness is simply receiving the gift of a good night’s sleep. In Scripture, in the incarnation, and in the church, we learn that grace comes to us through the tangible, earthy world, through the hours of an average day. The gift of rest comes to us through ritual and routine. Unearned and abundant, it comes in repetition, in the learning of a habit, in the liturgy of the day.” pg. 153
18) Hyper Objects – Timothy Morton – Jacob from college
“We are all burnt by ultraviolet rays. We all contain water in about the same ratio as Earth does, and salt water in the same ratio that the oceans do. We are poems about the hyperobject Earth.”
19) Rich Roll Podcast – Rich Roll – Caleah (DCH) in Denver
“Do what you love; love those you care about; give service to others; and know that you’re on the right path. There’s a new path waiting for you, too. All you have to do is look for it—then take that first step. If you show up and stay present, that step will eventually become a gigantic leap forward. And then you’ll show us who you really are.” https://www.richroll.com/
20) Almost Heretical podcast – Nate & Tim – Nancy from college
21) Firebringer – Youtube – Sarah in Denver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmVuNlu0LCk
22) The Family – Netflix – Graham in Denver
23) One day at a time – Netflix – Danielle in Denver
https://www.netflix.com/title/80095532
24) Becoming a man – Paul Minnett – Peter (weird therapist) in Denver
“In this Puritan sinkhole of a culture, we don’t teach children the uses of pleasure, and so they decide we are fools and go their own way, blindly. If we learned to drive as badly as we learn to make love, the roads would be nothing but wrecks. The erotic can be a window into the deepest core of feeling, but more and more doesn’t get you there. It’s a patch of ground that has to be reclaimed over and over, as much of a struggle for a ten years’ marriage as the fumbling grope of a second date. And with all that, you still have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find a prince.
“But I also see that it’s not for everybody, the exalted dream of romance. To some people I’m just a love junkie. What I experience as being known to the core, appetite and aspiration fused, some queers think of as confinement. Doomed to resemble a bourgeois marriage, straight-identified to boot. I suspect there’s a certain defensiveness there, a defiant need to be self-sufficient so nobody else can hurt you. Yet I have friends who don’t feel alone being single, and I’m not counting those who’ve had their fill of kissing frogs. In any case I speak only for myself when it comes to love, careful not to insist that everyone belongs in pairs.”
25) Call Me By Your Name – Andre Aciman – Aprile in Denver
“A few hours later, the clouds totally cleared, and the weather, as though to make up for its little prank, seemed to erase every hint of fall from our lives and gave us one of the most temperate days of the season. But I had heeded the warning, and as it is said of juries who have heard inadmissible evidence before it is stricken from the record, I suddenly realized that we were on borrowed time, that time is always borrowed, and that the lending agency exacts its premium precisely when we are least prepared to pay and need to borrow more.” pg. 162
26) Retribution Falls – Chris Wooding – Meagan in Seattle
“The Ketty Jay was staffed with drunkards and drifters, all of them running from something – whether it be memories or enemies or the drudgery of land-bound life – but since Yortland they’d been running in the same direction. United by that common purpose, they’d begun to turn into something resembling a crew. And Frey had begun to turn into something resembling a captain.”
“They were happy, and free, and the endless sky awaited them. It was enough.”
27) Nobody Belongs Here More Than You – Miranda July – Brian in Buffalo
“Do you have doubts about life? Are you unsure if it is worth the trouble? Look at the sky: that is for you. Look at each person’s face as you pass on the street: those faces are for you. And the street itself, and the ground under the street, and the ball of fire underneath the ground: all these things are for you. They are as much for you as they are for other people. Remember this when you wake up in the morning and think you have nothing. Stand up and face the east. Now praise the sky and praise the light within each person under the sky. It’s okay to be unsure. But praise, praise, praise.”
28) The Three-Body Problem – Liu Cixin – Graham in Denver
“Is it possible that the relationship between humanity and evil is similar to the relationship between the ocean and an iceberg floating on its surface? Both the ocean and the iceberg are made of the same material. That the iceberg seems separate is only because it is in a different form. In reality, it is but a part of the vast ocean.…”
“No, emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is a type of existence. You must use this existential emptiness to fill yourself.”
29) Way of the Peaceful Warrior – Dan Millman – Brian in Buffalo
“There is no need to search; achievement leads to nowhere. It makes no difference at all, so just be happy now! Love is the only reality of the world, because it is all One, you see. And the only laws are paradox, humor, and change. There is no problem, never was, and never will be. Release your struggle, let go of your mind, throw away your concerns, and relax into this world. No need to resist life; just do your best. Open your eyes and see that you are far more than you imagine. You are the world, you are the universe; you are yourself and everyone else, too! It’s all the marvelous Play of God. Wake up and regain your humor. Don’t worry, you are already free.”
30) The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Derek Shaw
“The Celebrated Buddhist Eightfold Path: Right Belief, Right Intentions, Right Speech, Right Actions, Right Livelihood, Right Endeavoring, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration…Stars, darkness, a lamp, a phantom, dew, a bubble, a dream, a flash of lightning, and a cloud: Thus we should look upon all that was made.”
“The dominant motive in all truly religious (as opposed to black magical) ceremonial is that of submission to the inevitables of destiny – and in the seasonal festivals this motive is particularly apparent…The wonderful cycle of the year, with it’s hardships and periods of joy, is celebrated, and delineated, and represented as continued in the life-round of the human group.”
31) The Expanse, books 2-8 – James SA Corey – Gwen in DE
Caliban’s War: “They’re all fucking men,” she said. “Excuse me?” Soren said. “The generals. They’re all fucking men.” “I thought Southern was the only—” “I don’t mean that they all fuck men. I mean they’re all men, the fuckers. How long has it been since a woman was in charge of the armed forces? Not since I came here. So instead, we wind up with another example of what happens to policy when there’s too much testosterone in the room.”
Abaddon’s Gate: “If humanity were capable of being satisfied, then they’ll still be living in trees and eating bugs out of one another’s fur. Anna had walked on a moon of Jupiter. She’d look up through a dome-covered sky at the great red spot, close enough to see the swirls and eddies of a storm larger than her home world. She’d tasted water thawed from ice as old as the solar system itself. And it was that human dissatisfaction, that human audacity that had put her there.”
Cibola Burn: “A person can fail the people they love just by being who they are.”
Nemesis Games: “He could see understanding beginning to dawn in her eyes. Only beginning to, though. Humanity was so flawed. Not just her, but everyone. Half the population was below average intelligence. Half below average dedication. Average adherence to duty. The cruel law of statistics. It was astounding that as a race they’d managed as much as they had.”
Babylon’s Ashes: “I thought if you told people facts, they’d draw their conclusions, and because the facts were true, the conclusions mostly would be too. But we don’t run on facts. We run on stories about things. About people.”
Persepolis Rising: “In his opinion, faith was generally for people who were bad at math.”
“I actually read history. It’s like reading prophecy, you know.”
Tiamat’s Wrath: “You take care of your tools, your tools take care of you.”