Michael J. Beery

Words for the journey within—and the worlds beyond.

Books on My Shelf

Literary Companions Along My Journey

Books have been companions throughout my life.

Some of the books collected here are quite literally on my shelves. Others once were. Some were encountered through classes, spiritual communities, periods of study, or simply at a moment in life when their words found me.

This isn’t intended to be a list of books with which I necessarily agree in every respect. Nor is it a declaration that every work represents what I believe today.

It is something more personal.

These are books that have informed me, challenged me, inspired me, entertained me, made me question assumptions, introduced me to unfamiliar ways of seeing the world, or helped shape the evolving understanding I carry with me today.

Think of this less as a recommended-reading list and more as a map of an intellectual, spiritual, and human journey.

Spirituality, Consciousness & the Search for Meaning

New Thought & Science of Mind

  • The Science of Mind — Ernest Holmes
  • Living the Science of Mind — Ernest Holmes
  • Can We Talk to God? — Ernest Holmes
  • 10 Ideas That Make a Difference — Ernest Holmes
  • Ernest at Asilomar — Ernest Holmes & Mark Gilbert
  • Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul’s Potential — Michael Bernard Beckwith
  • The Prosperous Life Journal — Chris Michaels & Edward Viljoen
  • Soul Awakening Practice — James O’Dea
  • What’s in the Way Is the Way — Mary O’Malley

Spiritual Wisdom & Personal Transformation

  • The Four Agreements — Don Miguel Ruiz
  • The Alchemist — Paulo Coelho
  • Jonathan Livingston Seagull — Richard Bach
  • To Bless the Space Between Us — John O’Donohue
  • The Essential Rumi — Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
  • The Lightmaker’s Manifesto — Karen Walrond
  • The Gifts of Imperfection — Brené Brown
  • Spiritual Bypassing — Robert Augustus Masters
  • The Paradoxical Commandments — Kent M. Keith
  • Do It Anyway — Kent M. Keith
  • The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles — Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D
  • I Create What I Believe! — Nancy Marie

World Religions & Sacred Traditions

  • The Bible
  • The Book of Mormon
  • Mere Christianity — C.S. Lewis
  • The Imitation of Christ — Thomas à Kempis
  • The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola
  • The Ignatian Adventure — Kevin O’Brien
  • The Hidden Parables: Activating the Secret Lessons of Jesus — Todd Michael
  • Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World — His Holiness the Dalai Lama
  • The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching — Thich Nhat Hanh
  • A Path and a Practice — William Martin
  • Taking Back Islam — Michael Wolfe
  • A Unifying Vision in Action: An Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith
  • Autobiography of a Yogi — Paramahansa Yogananda
  • The Earth Path — Starhawk

Philosophy & the Examined Life

Ancient Greece

  • The Dialogues of Socrates — Plato
  • The Republic — Plato
  • Metaphysics — Aristotle

Stoicism

  • Meditations — Marcus Aurelius
  • Letters from a Stoic — Seneca
  • Discourses — Epictetus

Modern Philosophy

  • Beyond Good and Evil — Friedrich Nietzsche
  • On Liberty — John Stuart Mill

These works have helped frame enduring questions that continue to interest me:

What constitutes a good life? What do we owe one another? What is freedom? What is virtue? And what responsibility accompanies being human?

Peace, Conflict & the Human Condition

  • The Art of Peace — Morihei Ueshiba
  • The Art of War — Sun Tzu
  • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century — Timothy Snyder
  • Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World — Paul Cartledge
  • D-Day Through German Eyes — Holger Eckhertz
  • The Mathews Men — William Geroux
  • Another Vietnam — Tim Page
  • Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption — Laura Hillenbrand

Democracy, Freedom, Justice & Human Rights

Foundations of American Democracy

  • The Declaration of Independence
  • The Constitution of the United States
  • The Bill of Rights
  • Common Sense — Thomas Paine

Democracy & Liberty

  • On Liberty — John Stuart Mill
  • On Tyranny — Timothy Snyder
  • The World Café — Juanita Brown & David Isaacs

These works represent another continuing thread in my reading: the relationship between individual liberty and collective responsibility, and the unfinished work of turning ideals of equality, justice and human dignity into lived reality.

Indigenous Wisdom, Shamanism & Earth-Based Spirituality

  • Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • The Way of the Shaman — Michael Harner
  • Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner’s Guide — Sandra Ingerman
  • The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge — Carlos Castaneda
  • Journey to Ixtlan — Carlos Castaneda
  • The Medicine Wheel — Sun Bear
  • The Medicine Wheel Garden — E. Barrie Kavasch
  • Walk in Balance — Sun Bear, Wabun & Shawnodese
  • The Bear Tribe’s Self-Reliance Book — Sun Bear, Wabun & Nimimosha
  • The Earth Path — Starhawk
  • The Way to Rainy Mountain — N. Scott Momaday
  • From Sand Creek — Simon J. Ortiz
  • Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light — Joy Harjo

Some works in this section come from very different traditions and historical contexts. I include them together not to suggest that they are interchangeable, but because each contributed in some way to my exploration of humanity’s relationship with nature, consciousness, ancestry, place and the sacred.

Poetry & the Language of the Human Spirit

  • Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson — Emily Dickinson
  • Complete Poems of Walt Whitman — Walt Whitman
  • The Road Not Taken — Robert Frost
  • The Waste Land — T.S. Eliot
  • American Primitive — Mary Oliver
  • Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light — Joy Harjo
  • From Sand Creek — Simon J. Ortiz
  • The Essential Rumi — Rumi
  • The Poet’s Companion — Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux

Poetry occupies a special place on this shelf.

Where philosophy attempts to explain, poetry can sometimes simply illuminate. A few lines can carry an idea farther than pages of argument.

Literature, Myth & Imagination

J.R.R. Tolkien

  • The Hobbit
  • The Lord of the Rings
  • The Silmarillion
  • The Adventures of Tom Bombadil

Classic Literature

  • The Iliad — Homer
  • The Odyssey — Homer
  • The Works of William Shakespeare
  • Great Expectations — Charles Dickens
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — Mark Twain
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls — Ernest Hemingway
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — Maya Angelou

Fiction & Storytelling

  • Shōgun — James Clavell
  • The Clan of the Cave Bear — Jean M. Auel
  • Jonathan Livingston Seagull — Richard Bach
  • Wool — Hugh Howey
  • My Side of the Mountain — Jean Craighead George
  • Left Behind — Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins
  • Tribulation Force — Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins

Fiction has been just as important to this journey as nonfiction. Stories allow us to inhabit another person’s world, imagine civilizations that never existed, confront moral questions at a safe distance, and sometimes recognize ourselves in people who never lived.

Mythology, Norse Traditions & Ancient Worlds

  • Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas
  • Elder Edda
  • The Viking Handbook
  • Viking Language 1 — Jesse L. Byock

These works reflect an interest not merely in mythology, but in how civilizations use stories to explain creation, courage, death, honor, nature and humanity’s place within the cosmos.

Mind, Body & Consciousness

  • Breath — James Nestor
  • The Science of Breath — Swami Rama, Rudolph Ballentine & Alan Hymes
  • Mind Over Medicine — Lissa Rankin
  • Somatics — Thomas Hanna
  • Tuning the Human Biofield — Eileen Day McKusick
  • The Empath’s Survival Guide — Judith Orloff
  • Hello Sleep — Jade Wu
  • Atomic Habits — James Clear
  • Kokoro Yoga — Mark Divine
  • Mudras — Gertrud Hirschi
  • Chakra Healing — Anodea Judith
  • Chakra Mantras
  • Everyday Zen — Charlotte Joko Beck
  • Unwind Your Mind — Emma WhispersRed

Nature, Ecology & Living With the Earth

  • Braiding Sweetgrass — Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Gaia’s Garden
  • The Forager’s Harvest — Samuel Thayer
  • The Backyard Homestead
  • The Medicine Wheel Garden — E. Barrie Kavasch
  • The Earth Path — Starhawk
  • North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook
  • The Old Farmer’s Almanac Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook
  • Top-Bar Beekeeping — Les Crowder & Heather Harrell

This shelf represents another lesson that appears repeatedly throughout the larger library:

Human beings aren’t separate from nature. We are participants in it.

Food, Fermentation & the Art of Making

  • The Sourdough School — Vanessa Kimbell
  • The Noma Guide to Fermentation — René Redzepi & David Zilber
  • Preserving the Japanese Way — Nancy Singleton Hachisu
  • Wookwan’s Korean Temple Food
  • Cook Once, Eat All Week — Cassy Joy Garcia
  • The Farmer’s Wife Canning & Preserving Cookbook

Home, Self-Reliance & Practical Knowledge

  • The Backyard Homestead
  • The Complete Guide to Creative Landscapes
  • The Complete Guide to Building Projects
  • First-Time Landlord
  • A Navy SEAL’s Bug-In Guide — Joel Lambert
  • How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine — Tom Wilson
  • American Sign Language for Beginners — Rochelle Barlow
  • The Complete and Practical Guide to Bonsai for Beginners
  • Raising Chickens, Goats & Backyard Beekeeping for Beginners

Practical knowledge belongs here too. There is wisdom in knowing how to grow something, preserve something, repair something, build something or care for something.

North Carolina, Place & Local History

  • The Tar Heel State: A New History of North Carolina — Milton Ready
  • Backroads of North Carolina — Kevin Adams
  • By Waters of the South Fork — Daniel J. Stowe
  • Echoes from Catawba, Volume 1 — Ted Carroll
  • Catawba River — edition/title to verify
  • North Carolina Extension Gardener Handbook

Understanding the place where we live is another way of understanding ourselves—its landscape, people, history and the generations who occupied it before us.

Writing & the Creative Life

  • The Poet’s Companion — Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux
  • A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide To Understanding and Writing Poetry — Mary Oliver
  • The Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control—and Live to Tell the Tale — Alice Mattison

Reading eventually leads some of us to writing.

The books on this shelf have not only given me ideas. Collectively, they helped teach me how ideas can be expressed through story, poetry, history, philosophy and reflection.

Books Encountered Through CSL Santa Rosa

The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa has been an important part of my spiritual journey. Over the years, books were frequently paired with monthly themes, Sunday messages, classes and community discussions.

Among the works I encountered or revisited through that community are:

  • 10 Ideas That Make a Difference — Ernest Holmes
  • Soul Awakening Practice — James O’Dea
  • Can We Talk to God? — Ernest Holmes
  • Spiritual Liberation — Michael Bernard Beckwith
  • What’s in the Way Is the Way — Mary O’Malley
  • The Lightmaker’s Manifesto — Karen Walrond
  • The Gifts of Imperfection — Brené Brown
  • Spiritual Bypassing — Robert Augustus Masters
  • Ernest at Asilomar — Ernest Holmes & Mark Gilbert
  • Thank & Grow Rich — Pam Grout
  • Living the Science of Mind — Ernest Holmes
  • Taking Back Islam — Michael Wolfe
  • A Unifying Vision in Action
  • The Hidden Parables — Todd Michael
  • The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching — Thich Nhat Hanh
  • A Path and a Practice — William Martin
  • The Earth Path — Starhawk

These works are included throughout the categories above rather than isolated as a separate spiritual canon because their ideas became part of the larger journey.

A Shelf Without an End

This collection will never really be finished.

Some books taught me things I still believe.

Some taught me things I no longer believe.

Some gave me answers.

The best ones usually gave me better questions.

Taken together, they represent something of a literary autobiography—a record of the voices I have invited into my life while trying to understand God, humanity, nature, justice, consciousness, history, creativity, community and my own place among them.

There will always be room for another book on the shelf.