Books like Longing for Darkness by China Galland

Eckhart Tolle guides readers toward a pain‑free existence by teaching how to recognize and release mental patterns that cause suffering, encouraging living fully in the present moment.

Sy Montgomery explores the remarkable minds of octopuses, revealing their intelligence, curiosity and skill through vivid encounters and scientific insight.

Part travel memoir, part spiritual pilgrimage, and part call to action, The Bond Between Women takes the reader to Nepal, India, Brazil, Argentina, and back to America to meet women - both mythological and real - of fierce compassion. Their stories form the heart of this narrative, into which Galland weaves strands of her own searing, personal journey. Re-creations of ancient myths of goddesses from around the world thread through this story of the power of the bond between women. In Nepal, a woman doctor tirelessly rescues children who have been sold to Indian brothels. In India, an international women's campaign works to help clean the waters of the Ganges. In Brazil, a woman teaches street children in a makeshift school under a Rio freeway. In Argentina, the Mothers of the Disappeared bear witness against a government that stole the lives of their children. In the United States, Mother Teresa's Sisters feed the homeless, and a Buddhist nun teaches peacemaking, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Around the world, women are working for healing, and the lives of these women reveal an unusual source of strength: the fierceness of compassion, symbolized in ancient icons, images, and archetypes of the divine feminine. Known to Buddhists in Nepal and Tibet as Tara, to Hindus in India as the goddess Durga, to Catholics in Europe and Latin America as the Black Madonna, and as Jemanja in the Afro-Brazilian tradition of Candomble, this fierce divine feminine arises when the world is on the brink of destruction, and saves us, the ancient stories say. Galland shows us that help comes from forgotten quarters, from what has been lost, rejected, and marginalized, and that though the world may be threatened, it is also being saved, by countless acts of courage, kindness, and fierce compassion.

A personal journey through the artist-author's dreams and drawings, exploring the emergence of a new caring relationship to the Earth and all its creatures.

Mia, a grieving artist’s daughter, travels from London to India in pursuit of a charismatic guru, navigating love, family conflict, and a journey to the Kumb Mela pilgrimage that forces her to confront her own doubts.

Are trees social beings? Forester and author Peter Wohlleben makes the case that, yes, the forest is a social network. He draws on groundbreaking scientific discoveries to describe how trees are like human families: tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, support them as they grow, share nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warn each other of impending dangers. Wohlleben also shares his deep love of woods and forests, explaining the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in his woodland.

"Dark Shadows is a compelling portrait of Kazakhstan, a country that is little known in the West. Strategically located in the heart of Central Asia, sandwiched between Vladimir Putin's Russia, its former colonial ruler, and Xi Jinping's China, this vast oil-rich state is carving out its place in the world as it contends with its own complex past and present. Journalist Joanna Lillis paints a vibrant picture of this emerging nation through vivid reportage based on 13 years of on-the-ground coverage, and travels across the length and breadth of this enigmatic country that lies along the ancient Silk Road and at the geopolitical and cultural crossroads where East meets West. Featuring tales of murder and abduction, intrigue and betrayal, extortion and corruption, this book explores how a president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, transformed himself into a potentate and the economically-struggling state he inherited at the fall of the USSR into a swaggering 21st-century monocracy. A colourful cast of characters brings the politics to life: from strutting oligarch to sleeping villagers, from principled politicians to striking oilmen, from crusading journalists to courageous campaigners. Traversing dust-blown deserts and majestic mountains, taking in glitzy cities and dystopian landscapes, Dark Shadows conjures up Kazakhstan as a living, breathing place, full of extraordinary people living extraordinary lives."--Bloomsbury Publishing.