Our reading and listening recommendations that we typically share in the summer have been so popular, we decided to do a second round of recommendations this winter, featuring books and podcasts from Gathering Waters board members, volunteers, and donors.
Let us know what you think of these picks and what you’re reading this winter! Drop us a note at info@gatheringwaters.org.
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
By Jessica Bruder
The author lives among low-income people living in their vans and mobile homes, because rent has become unaffordable. They’re working long hours in warehouses for companies like Amazon. They have a hard time finding places to park and sleep. Older people are not able to retire. It’s a look at a sad reality of a portion of our population.
The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart Podcast
By Comedy Central
I really enjoy Jon Stewart’s vision and the guests he brings on his podcast. It’s a show about saving our democracy. He recently hosted one of my favorite historians, Heather Cox Richardson.
-Jill Brodkey, Gathering Waters Donor
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
By Mary Oliver
This book is a collection of poems by Mary Oliver from across her career. It is truly a treasure! No one captures the world of nature and our connection to it as she does. You will smile; you will contemplate; you will learn. I recommend the poem “Almost a Conversation,” which shows us what we can learn from otters and other animals. Also, “When I Am Among the Trees,” which ends with the line, “you…have come into the world…to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.” Another favorite is “How I Go Into the Woods,” in which Oliver writes, “if you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you.” Oliver tells us that to look, to listen, and to be, are gifts.
The Little Liar
By Mitch Albom
Narrated by the voice of “Truth,” this small book chronicles the life of three Greek Jewish children during and after the Holocaust. It shows us the human consequences of honesty and deception and the choices that change our lives forever. Albom is an excellent, insightful writer that you might know from the book and play Tuesdays with Morrie.
-Joy H. Dohr, Gathering Waters Donor
The Infinite Game
By Simon Sinek
My favorite way to experience Simon Sinek is to listen to him, as he is an engaging presenter. He has many videos on YouTube and some of the most viewed TED Talks including How to discover your “why” in difficult times. I’ve most recently read The Infinite Game, which analyzes how we often apply finite win-lose approaches to business and life rather than an infinite mindset to create enduring value and trusting relationships. This reminds me that our work with environmental conservation and protecting land is an important and enduring infinite game.
-Carol Fisher, Gathering Waters Board Member
The Light We Carry
By Michelle Obama
I am currently reading this book and it is very timely. It helps me to remember to reach high, look through our limitations, and open our hearts to connection.
Written in 2022 during Mr. Biden’s presidency, Ms. Obama helps us move forward through the times we are in with dignity, grace, and hope.
-Carolyn Micek, Gathering Waters Development Committee Member
The Woman Back from Moscow: In Pursuit of Beauty
By Ha Rin
This is the story of Chinese Premiere Zhou Enlai’s adopted daughter, her early years among the Communist Party elite in the Yan’an caves, her years studying drama in Moscow, and her return to China after the revolution. She was a young artist, naive and full of energy, hope, and passion, using her art to build a New China, giving voice to the lives of common Chinese. Ultimately though, her youthful energy and professional success caught the jealous eye of Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. Even her powerful adoptive father could not, or would not, save her. In Ha Jin’s quiet and slow telling, Sun Weishi’s story captures the personal vendettas, petty rivalries and hypocrisy that so animated elite Chinese politics, with tragic consequences, then as now.
-Steve Rasin, Gathering Waters Donor
