Media Suggestions

I think a good use of cyber-space from my vantage point, is to pass along suggested materials to those who are looking for inspiration. Let me make this clear from the beginning: These are not personal recommendations or endorsements. These will be compilitations from several sources. Please feel free to comment on any of the materials that have been "suggested."

Meaning of Life (10/13/05)

Q: A high school student was looking for books about "the meaning of life," fiction or nonfiction, religious or not. Elie Wiesel was suggested, but she is studying him later. She mentioned she may try "Three weeks with my brother" by Nicholas Sparks and "Looking for Alaska" by John Green. Do you have other suggestions?

A’s:

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Illusions by Richard Bach
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
"Godless" by Pete Hautman is about a group of teenagers who worship the town's water tower. It starts out as a joke but becomes complicated.
"Western Philosophy : An Illustrated Guide" by David Papineau (2004) a nonfiction resource which would introduce her to the complexity of the question...
The Prophet by Kahlil GibranTraveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

The Time Quartet books by Madeleine L'Engle
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig.
The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher
SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD, Orson Scott Card
Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman.
Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

Viktor Frankl for YAs? :) The first half is his first person account of survival in the Nazi camps, the second is pretty dense stuff about his theory of logotherapy:"Logotherapy...considers man as a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning and in actualizing values, rather than in the mere gratification and satisfaction of drives and instincts." p.164"What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him." p.166GREAT book; it is for educated adults.