The Interior Silence : My Encounters with Calm, Joy, and Compassion at 10 Monasteries Around the World Sarah Sands

 This is a luminous account of Sarah Sands's travels to monasteries and convents from Egypt to Japan to try to capture the peace of these spiritual places in her everyday life. I enjoyed her historical summaries, vivid descriptions of her travels, and her attempts to understand the way of life at the Christian and Buddhist monasteries. The book has received some bad reviews, describing the author as 'privileged', and as she was a fairly wealthy and busy BBC journalist, this was true. However, it was a good idea, and she divides the book into easy lessons that we can learn from the monks and nuns. I especially enjoyed reading about Bede and St. Cuthbert. Some reviewers have written that she didn't learn the lessons herself, but at least she tried, and I found the book helpful

Although the section on The Sound of Music didn't really 'fit in' with the rest of the book, I didn't mind her including it (maybe as I am one of the film's biggest fans!) She was in Salzburg, after all, and, although the Trapp family and film may be somewhat sneered at by many (not her), it has to be said that they showed great courage in escaping the Nazis, and it is a story worth telling.

I received this free ebook from Edelweiss in return for an honest review.