I normally choose fiction novels over self-help, but I‘m glad I picked up this little piece. Scazzero‘s book is honest, his stories raw, and his wisdom unpretentious. The real challenge begins now, beyond the back cover, as I attempt to implement these truths, and accept the inevitable mess along the way to emotionally healthy spirituality.

This was the first book to ever bring real tears to my eyes. I could not convince myself that Mariam and Laila‘s suffering was not happening right before my eyes. 415 pages devoured in less than a week. I only wish there were more books like this. Hosseini has the gift of taking an incredibly beautiful story of loss, heartache, and the poverty of the soul, and making it feel as if it‘s our own. What a gifted author.

Hosseini stole my heart with his first two books, so I had high expectations for this one. It did not disappoint. From the very first pages, my heart was in it. Fully engaged in this web of characters from beginning to end, I read this book cover to cover in three days. Beautiful language, deep levels of imagery, the darkest and most beautiful parts of the human experience - all wrapped up into this amazing novel.

Can a story be classified as “coming of age” if the protagonist is in his sixties? Rachel Joyce beautifully expresses the deep desires and unspoken hurts of Harold and Maureen Fry, driven apart twenty years earlier by pain and tragedy they could not face. Harold‘s journey brings him through strength and fear, memory and loss, fame and oblivion. Though none of us has walked 500 miles in his shoes, we have all been on a pilgrimage of our own.