The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho





I believe this book can speak for itself. It has many, many kernels of truth in it that lead toward God:

"I couldn't have found God in the seminary, he thought, as he looked at the sunrise."

 

"The old man pointed to a baker standing in his shop window at one corner of the plaza. "When he was a child, that man wanted to travel, too. But he decided first to buy his bakery and put some money aside. When he's an old man, he's going to spend a month in Africa. He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of." 



"When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he had never dreamed of when he first made the decision."

 

"The boy was beginning to understand that intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there."

 

"Every second of the search is an encounter with God," the boy told his heart. "When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I've known that every hour was a part of the dream that I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I've discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve."

Isaac's Storm, by Erik Larson



I wasn't sure, during the hurricane, if all the points of view of the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day were going to end with me feeling elevated by this read, but they did. Even though the storm was so completely devastating, the people of the town were able to regroup and rebuild. 'Honesty in your dealings with your fellow men' is an anchoring discussion point throughout the book. People who are dishonest with others cause a lot of harm.

There was a fascinating discussion of the inception of the weather bureau and it's involvement in the disastrous effects of the storm. Some of the personalities involved are so pompous as to be unbelievable, but their words are direct quotes from telegrams and etc. Also there was a semi-technical discussion of the way the winds move around the globe and how that affected the hurricane, and how hurricanes in general develop. I think a diagram would have helped me understand the winds better.

I highly recommend becoming familiar with the map of Galveston in the front of the book before beginning. Understanding the general layout of the town is important to the story telling.