Lately a lot of my nonfiction reading has been focused on prayer, meditation and spiritual life. This book was in a long list of titles for further reading at the back of Philip Yancey's book on Prayer that I read earlier this year.
This is an excellent introduction to contemplative prayer, written by Jesuit teacher Mark Thibodeaux. I found a lot of overlap here with the content in Dean Sluyter's Natural Meditation. The similarities surprised me, but I liked it.
The idea of communion and relationship with God has been difficult for me to grasp, but the author's explanation and approach was surprisingly accessible and, in many ways, concrete. There are of course no magic words or wacky promises here, but I find the method of prayer hopeful and comforting.
Highly recommended. This is one I'll use for regular reference, so I'm glad I bought a copy. ( )

This is a great book for going deeper in one's prayer life and dealing with the very many obstacles that interfere with a sustained life of prayer. It includes more than 20 exercises for overcoming such obstacles as an inability to rest in God's presence, the need for healing past wounds, unrelenting noise in or outside one's head, distractions, dryness and many other obstacles. ( )