Writers Read: Laura Carney

A writer and magazine copy editor in New York, Laura Carney has been published by the Washington Post, the Associated Press, The Hill, Runner’s World, Good Housekeeping,

The Fix, Upworthy, Maria Shriver’s The Sunday Paper, and other places. She has worked as a copy editor in national magazines—primarily women’s—for twenty years, including Vanity Fair, GQ, People, and Good Housekeeping.

Carney's memoir is My Father's List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Her reply:

I hoard books, and it doesn't help that I picked up books for free when I worked full-time at a women's magazine (I also now own enough anti-aging cream to look 47 forever). But since publishing My Father's List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free, in June 2023, I've discovered yet another reason to own too many books—publishing a successful one makes lots of people want you to blurb theirs. Or pass theirs along to your agent. I'm happy to do so, and I'm also happy to pre-order every new book a new author friend publishes. The result: I currently have about 60 books in my to-be-read pile, next to my nightstand, which probably scared my in-laws when they house-sat. Or at least tripped them.

Of the 60 or so I'm currently reading, here are the ones I'm most excited about (and keep in mind I bought about 15 more when I was on vacation after my One City, One Book award in Greensboro, NC):

Gratitude and Trust: Six Affirmations That Will Change Your Life: I bought this book before I interviewed one of my heroes, the composer Paul Williams, and I highly recommend it. Oprah liked it too. I've learned a lot from my conversations with Paul, but mainly to "view every no as a gift," one of his mottos, and to view every turn in my life as a direction from "the big amigo." The insights in this book, based on the 12-step program, are wonderful.

Myths to Live By by Joseph Campbell: I've read just about every book in Joseph Campbell's catalogue, but this one has to be my favorite. It was a big influence when I wrote My Father's List. Sometimes if there's a central idea in a book that I've built a life philosophy around, I'll scour that book again just to find it. So I'm rereading this.

In one of the chapters (which are based on his lectures), but I'm not sure which one yet, Campbell posits that the Garden of Eden was never a real place, and man was never locked out of it, that we aren't meant to look at God as a big man in the sky. He also theorizes that we aren't meant to believe that we must live our lives separated from Him until we die. Campbell explores the theory instead that the Biblical garden is a metaphor for one's heart, and so is the birth of Christ. He talks about how man's goal should be to live in accordance with his own beliefs, with the Christ figure in his heart—that when he does so, he'll be back in the garden, not cast out, and united with God while living.

I've always loved this idea of Campbell's, or at least this interpretation, though it's one put forth by lots of great thinkers, like Dr. Joseph Murphy and Florence Scovel Shinn—it's this idea that our life mirrors back to us what we radiate out, and if we radiate out wholeness, integrity, consistency and love, this is what we'll get back (or at least what we will see in our everyday experiences). "A vital person vitalizes," Campbell often said. He also said that if heaven is eternal, that means it's a place with no time, not infinite time...and it's possible, through following one's bliss, to have that experience right now. What I learned while completing my dad's bucket list (the premise of my book) was the art of being present—the list items were wholly engaging and typically meant learning new things. This is the main reason I was able to reconnect with my father, in spirit—where he is, time is eternal, and I was living in an eternal space now too.

Gratitude by Oliver Sacks: This book was given to me by John Jordan, who's in charge of public relations at my father's old high school, Archmere Academy in Delaware. I keep it next to my gratitude journal on my nightstand as a reminder. PS: I also keep five journals at once—so I guess I'm a journal hoarder, too!

After by Bruce Greyson, M.D.: My work has happily brought me in touch with a handful of psychic mediums and one near-death experiencer, Jacob Cooper, who turned me on to this book. Jacob calls me a "journalist to the dead," which I think means that in My Father's List, I only ever provided indisputable examples of communication with my father, patterns that came to me rather than my looking for them...I just thought to jot them down. It often felt like my dad was pulling strings for me, helping me along as I went. This book helps explain, scientifically, why people have those kinds of experiences. Bruce Greyson is a "scientist to the dead," I suppose.

Conversations With God (Book One) by Neale Donald Walsch: My friend Erin recommended this one, and I've only just gotten started. But I listened to an interview with the author on my friend Karen Noé's podcast, and I loved the idea he shared, that God told him what every human being wants in life is to be used to their fullest potential. My prayer most often is "use me." Or "show me." So this book will likely resonate.

The Way of the Wild Goose: Three Pilgrimages Following Geese, Stars and Hunches on the Camino de Santiago by Beebe Bahrami: I only recently bought this, and I'm excited to read it not only because I plan on finishing my own bucket list with a hike on the Camino—500 miles when I turn 50—but because this is a feminist take on the hike, one I hope to write about too. I have a theory that the pilgrimages of Europe were placed on top of ancient Druid ley lines, and that if I hike the Camino, I'll find sheela-na-gigs in ruins of churches as proof. Either way, I'm excited to explore the life of a female pilgrim (which I suppose is how I feel as a writer as it is)."