17 Books Like Growing Up with the Impressionists

This is less the single secret to life than a glimpse into a fascinating one, along with some nudges as to how you might change your mindset to live your own to the full. From her childhood memory of Gandhi on his salt march, to weathering divorce in her 80s, Dr McGarey’s life makes a gripping read. And she has really thought about her audience; chapters are short and each leads neatly onto the next. When I first opened the book, McGarey was a trailblazing 103-year-old who became a doctor at a time when women were still cold shouldered by many in the profession. I finished the book quickly and immediately looked her up; she had just died the week before. It somehow made her insights all the more precious. Quite simply, this book is a page turner, which, for non-fiction, is quite an achievement.

Dr James Barry tells the story of Margaret Anne Bulkley, a poor Irish girl in late 18th-century Cork who, refusing to accept her lot and with the help of a few well-placed sponsors, got herself an education and some trousers and turned herself into Dr James Barry. This is a gripping and meticulously researched account of her climb through the medical world and her trek across the globe, where the fear of her gender being discovered lurks on every page. Some parts are gruesome (diseases are horribly well researched and the description of a human dissection in chapter 7 is positively stomach-turning), other parts heartrending (like her probable but unspoken love for Lord Charles Somerset, one of her mentors). But it is also so gripping that I couldn’t put it down. Dr James Barry is a vivid reminder that truth really can be every bit as thrilling as fiction.

This book helped me shift my mindset, and I first picked it up during a stressful phase of my life. I gave myself some time to simply breathe and take it in. It reminded me that the “now” is not just a passing second, but a sacred space where peace and clarity live.

I love how it helped me stop living in the echo of yesterday or the fear of tomorrow. I remember closing my eyes and whispering, “This moment is enough,” and feeling my shoulders relax for the first time in weeks. It helped me feel more connected with myself, my son, my clients, and in doing so, intentionally live every moment with more compassion, stillness, and supremacy.

Of Madeleine L’Engle’s books, A Wrinkle in Time gets all the attention. But as often happens, praise sometimes misses something great. Her follow-up to Wrinkle in that same series, A Wind in the Door, is extraordinary. In one particular way, Wind gets at a truth; that the scale of big to small, human to mitochondria, mitochondria to galaxy, is actually not as distancing as it seems. No matter what size, everything has an essential part to play. There is also a theme to the book that, then and now, I find particularly poignant; the value of putting down roots and deepening into your life. As sometimes happens with YA books, Wind offers something really valuable for adults. Plus it’s short, which is pretty cool.

This is a work of fiction written by Jane Roberts, famous as the writer of the Seth books. Through the novel form, Roberts gets across a plausible way to look at life, the fluid nature of time and some possible meaning and purpose to be found in reincarnation. It’s also pretty entertaining. Yay novels! There are three books in the Oversoul series. This, the second, is my favorite. 

This book was like a fisherman with bait on the hook. I was the fish; the fantasy setting and the author’s magnificent ability with words were the bait.

Mary Stewart was, of course, the sportswoman out to snag something in my soul. I was prepared to be entertained, but the story carried a surprising amount of weight, asking questions like What do we live for? Can humanity ever be enough? Merlin came into an understanding of his place in the world — not through romance or fantasy adventures as we so typically read —  but through internal revelation.

With his journey, I was invited into soulful reflection and some uncomfortable truths of my own. In the end, I decided Mary Stewart knew very well what she was doing. The stinker.

I saved the best for last. In the mid-’80s, I was in a meditation group, and though we were centered around the teachings of Edgar Cayce, we read every new age and self-help book that came along. Far and away our favorite, with the most inspiring viewpoint, was Emmanuel’s Book. It was written a bit like poetry and I think there’s a reason for that. Emmanuel had a way of bypassing the human mind and speaking to us on a level deeper. As he liked to say: “Your life is none of your mind’s business.” Emmanuel has a way of putting you in contact with a knowing place within. As to whether or not you stay there, well that’s your personal mystical problem. 

Mystical quests are all well and good, but most things, even our quests, can be fodder for self-delusion. That’s just how humans are built. Learning the particulars of how we’re built is a powerful way to lessen that delusion. Sooner or later, some actual self-work becomes necessary. I haven’t come across a more effective roadmap to the self than what’s found in the Pathwork Lectures of Eva Pierrakos. This is channeled work, the idea of which may make you punch your computer screen. But the information in these lectures, about the inner workings of the human psyche, seems spot on. This book contains a sampling from a few of the lectures, a sort of dim sum of psychological wisdom.

Eckart Tolle is well known for offering inspirational and simple ways of helping people. This is perhaps his most enlightening book and defines the ego's games better than anyone.

One of his main messages is that emotional issues like anxiety and depression are not our natural states and are reflective of too much identification with the ego. And letting go of our ego is needed for a new consciousness.

What we value is that his writing is powerful and really drives home his points.

This book is an incredible reference book. I used it as an actor in one of my favorite acting classes. During rehearsal, we used archetypes to help flesh out and explore our characters. This technique felt groundbreaking.

Since archetypes are essential to character development, and we each possess every archetype within us, this book was a staple for me in my creative development. I will go so far as to say that this book was a portal for me to access the teacher in me and expanded me out of my actor self and into my author self.