The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats is simply an exquisite story of unconditional love. Deeply moving and magical. Good to read along with the titles below by Jacques Lusseyran. Both books convey how visual sight really distracts us from truly seeing and experiencing anything at all. Very highly recommend!

Against the Pollution of the I by Jacques Lusseyran

This is a truly extraordinary collection of six essays. Every one is a gem. If you can't find a copy then borrow it from the library! This is one of the books I would want to have on a desert isle....

"Every once in a while a book is released that simply exalts the soul in ways that are universal, breathtaking, and marvelous. Here are six posthumous essays by Jacques Lusseyran (1924-1971), a French writer, teacher, and activist during World War II in the Resistance Movement. He was imprisoned at Buchenwald until the U.S. Third Army liberated him."

His autobiography, And Then There Was LIght, is equally as stunning.

Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin by John Blofeld

Beautiful and illuminating book! I look forward to reading his other works.

"John Blofeld evokes the charming presence of Kuan Yin through colorful anecdotes, personal experiences, and descriptions of Buddhist rituals and legends encountered during his travels throughout China. At the same time, he offers a learned account of the goddess's history and importance in Chinese thought and religion. He explores the origin of the Bodhisattva of Compassion in India and Tibet, in the form of Avalokiteshvara (Tibetan: Chenresig), a male deity who evolved into the gentle mother/maiden figure of Chinese Buddhism. Meditation and visualization techniques associated with Kuan Yin are given, and her principal iconographic forms are described. Illustrated with images from Chinese and Tibetan sacred art, the book also contains translations of devotional poems and yogic texts. Bodhisattva of Compassion is undoubtedly the most complete and illuminating picture of Kuan Yin available."

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

I really enjoyed this, the writing is excellent and creative!
"Cloud Atlas consists of six nested stories that take the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth century to a distant,post-apocalyptic future. Each tale is revealed to be a story that is read (or observed) by the main character in the next. The first five stories are interrupted at a key moment. After the sixth story, the other five stories are returned to and closed, in reverse chronological order, and each ends with the main character reading or observing the chronologically previous work in the chain. Eventually, readers end where they started, with Adam Ewing in the nineteenth century South Pacific." 

WASHOKU:Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen / KANSHA: Celebrating Japan's Vegan & Vegetarian Traditionsby Elizabeth Andoh

If you like simple home-style Japanese country cooking, you'll love Elizabeth Andoh's books. She also has three websites, one for each book offering more recipes and online workshops and archives.
http://www.WASHOKUcooking.com/
http://www.KANSHAcooking.com/
http://www.KIBOcooking.com/

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

This is one of my all time favorites. What a storyteller! His other two books, which are autobiographies are also good!
"The story is a riveting saga of twin brothers, Marion and Shiva Stone, born of a tragic union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother's death in childbirth and their father's disappearance, and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.But it's love, not politics -- their passion for the same woman -- that will tear them apart and force Marion to flee his homeland and make his way to America, finding refuge in his work at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him, wreaking havoc and destruction, Marion has to entrust his life to the two men he has trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him."

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

Beautifully crafted, very real understanding of PTSD  in soldiers. This is a must-read!
"Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremny that defeats the most virulent of afflictions—despair."

Master of the Jinn by Irving Karchmar

Exquisitely beautiful, highly recommend this one!
"Here is a tale set on the Path of the Heart, a mystical adventure wherein a modern-day Sufi master sends seven companions on a quest for the original Ring of Power, and the greatest treasure of the ancient world - King Solomon's ring. It is the very same seal ring of a hundred legends, given to King Solomon by God to command the Jinn, those terrifying demons of living fire."

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny (Armand Gamache mystery)

Am enjoying this mystery series by Louise Penny, most of which take place in and around Montreal.