True Refuge:  Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart, Tara Brach, 2013 

An exceptionally well done ‘meditation’ book combining anecdotes with a well delineated framework for approaching inner peace.  With very useful and memorable epigrams to introduce each chapter from Rumi and various Buddhavistas, Brach presents the case for parallel universes—the one we physically live in (the foreground) and the emptiness dancing background of awareness, truth, and love.  The ability to give up ‘the controller’, accept the inevitability of sadness, loss, grief and finitude while loving the natural world and focusing on the present moment allows one to navigate these two parallel worlds successfully.  Compassion and loving-kindness are themes throughout, especially compassion for oneself and the ability to set aside the self-aversion that interferes with our ability to be present and there for ourselves and others.  Pause, Stop, RAIN, not firing that second arrow—the book is full of practical, memorable suggestions on how as well as what and why.  A fine addition to the meditation library.