This week’s Inspired By is dedicated to the lovely Carol M. Merchasin author of  This is Mexico (available now for Paperback and Kindle).

Here, Carol shares five books that inspired her to write This Is Mexico and why.

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

A wonderfully wise look at friendship, marriage and the ability of one’s dreams to disappoint.  

 

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I became mesmerized by the magical realism and the idea of different realities.  I later came to find this in Mexico!

 

Bird by Bird by Anne LaMott

Anything by Anne LaMott, really, but this was my introduction to her.  Even though I was not writing then as I am now, her take of the messiness of the world is so comforting.  

 

The Color Purple by Alice Walker  

How beautifully crafted in epistolary style.  Her vision of redemption is as heartwarming as the realities of black women’s lives were harsh.

 

The Places that Scare You by Pema Chodron

Who doesn’t need more help being fearless?  And kind?  I certainly do and this is the map to both qualities.