My Top 13 Recommended Reads

When I was a young girl living on the shores of Lake Huron, if I wasn't playing with my Barbies or floating on an inner tube singing "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean," and staring at the horizon, mesmerized, you'd find me in my bedroom, a book in hand. Today, I still feel the richness of time spent alone with a book, watching daylight being sweet talked by dusk. I'm on a quest - as are most of you - to live from my core self and so most of my recommendations here will be of a spiritual nature, but each of these books caused me to rub my eyes - literally and figuratively - and wake up! Here are my favorites. Happy 2013 and abundant reading to you!

1. Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

2. Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth.

3. Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.

4. Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

5. Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft.

6.  Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way.

7. Louise L. Hay, You Can Heal Your Life.

8. Amy Tan, Saving Fish from Drowning.

9. Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones.

10. Florence Scovel Shinn, The Game of Life and How to Play It.

11. Tosha Silver, Outrageous Openness.

12. Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.

13. Deepak Chopra, Debbie Ford, Marianne Williamson, The Shadow Effect: Illuminating the Hidden Power of your True Self.