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Verity’s Year In Books

Verity’s 2024 Year in Books

Take a look at Verity’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

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Verity Jenkins

Goodreads Author

Born

in Perth, Australia

Website

https://www.verityjenkins.com

Genre

Fiction, Travel, Memoir

Influences

Barry Lopez, Laurens van der Post, Joseph Campbell and so many others.

Member Since

November 2013

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We think of stories as being out there and all around us, but the most important stories reside within us. They are the stories we tell ourselves about ourself - to figure out who we are and make sense of the world.

Here's my story as briefly as I can tell it...

I suffered terribly as a child, both at home and at school. I was neurodiverse, and my Father, who was a surgeon, joined a cult that believed in faith healing. He lost his way in the most extreme way a human being & parent can - by attempting to murder his own family. Fortunately, he failed, but the innocence of youth perished.

I was a lost teen, participating in the most extreme sports and self-destructive behaviours to overcome my fears and insecurities.

In my late teens, I stumbled We think of stories as being out there and all around us, but the most important stories reside within us. They are the stories we tell ourselves about ourself - to figure out who we are and make sense of the world.

Here's my story as briefly as I can tell it...

I suffered terribly as a child, both at home and at school. I was neurodiverse, and my Father, who was a surgeon, joined a cult that believed in faith healing. He lost his way in the most extreme way a human being & parent can - by attempting to murder his own family. Fortunately, he failed, but the innocence of youth perished.

I was a lost teen, participating in the most extreme sports and self-destructive behaviours to overcome my fears and insecurities.

In my late teens, I stumbled upon an open mike storytelling group near the University of Toronto, one of the first and longest-running of its kind. I began to tell my stories to audiences, and over many years I found meaning and ultimately redemption in them. Stories saved me.

I have now been long steeped in stories, and the patterns are etched in my bones.

My heart aches for those who have suffered and yet who struggle to remain altruistic & compassionate. We can survive and thrive despite & sometimes because of what happens to us. Although we can't change the past, WE CAN TELL A BETTER STORY ABOUT OUR PAST. We can, over time, make that suffering redemptive.

I believe in the importance of the ongoing dialogue we have between the stories we hear, see and read and our own story, our personal mythology - our identity and the story we are living into. How can we author a better story for ourselves, a story that is "true" for us?

We can redeem any life experience, even the untellable and unspeakable. It takes time and many attempts, but we can transform toxic and contaminated narratives into better ones. Not all light and bright, but we can at the very least do justice to our villains and give them a good backstory. Better still, we can live into a good story. Being conscious of this process lies at the heart of the power of story. There are now thirty years of social science research to support far better life outcomes and greater resiliency, for those who redeem their own life experiences through the stories they tell.

Sixteen years ago, a four-year-old child opened up her hand and showed me a very dried bee. She said, "I'm going to love this bee back to life." At that moment I became a fiction author, the entire Ray Adventure Series was born from the pearl of wisdom offered to me by a young child. From time to time, when I need inspiration and redemption, I write another standalone book in the Ray Adventure series.

We all need to be "loved back to life" at one time or another. This theme helped me to realize that my dear Mother needed to be loved back to life when she had Alzheimer's Dementia. That brought my self-directed adventures to an end and my journey as a full-time caregiver began. I wrote two of the Ray Adventure Series during that time, and the third one was written in a time of despair following my Mother's death & the loss of my livelihood.

These books saved me, I hope they can contribute to your life in a meaningful way.

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Combine Editions
Verity Jenkins’s books

Average rating: 0.0 · 0 ratings · 0 reviews · 6 distinct works

	The Ray Adventure Series Omnibus 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Butterfly Bard (The Ray Adventure Series Book 2) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Quest for the First Hive (The Ray Adventure Series Book 1) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Butterfly Bard (The Ray Adventure Series) by Mark Jenkins, Verity Jenkins (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2020 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Ray Adventure Series Omnibus by Mark Jenkins, Verity Jenkins (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shambhala & the Caregiving Heart of the World (The Ray Adventure Series) by Mark Jenkins, Verity Jenkins (Goodreads Author) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Verity is Currently Reading

Verity Jenkins is currently reading

The Practice of the Wild: With a New Preface by the Author

by Gary Snyder

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Aug 03, 2024 06:53PM

Verity Jenkins is currently reading

Outside the Big Oak Doors

by Michelle Tocher (Goodreads Author)

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Sep 28, 2023 03:52PM

Verity Jenkins is currently reading

This Boy's Life: A Memoir

by Tobias Wolff

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May 15, 2023 06:10AM

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Verity’s Recent Updates

Verity Jenkins rated a book it was amazing The End of Prim by Michelle Tocher (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
For some of us, it feels like the world is ending — and then we realize it's something more intimate unraveling: the end of a persona, a role, a story we've lived inside for too long. The End of Prim lives in that tension, where personal apocalypse m ...more
Nov 04, 2025 07:13AM · like · see review
Verity Jenkins is currently reading The Practice of the Wild: With a New Preface by the Author by Gary Snyder	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 03, 2024 06:53PM · like
Verity Jenkins rated a book it was amazing Seven Gothic Tales by Isak Dinesen	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Verity’s Quotes

“Dostoevski said once, "There is only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings." These words frequently came to my mind after I became acquainted with those martyrs whose behavior in camp, whose suffering and death, bore witness to the fact that the last inner freedom cannot be lost. It can be said that they were worthy of the their sufferings; the way they bore their suffering was a genuine inner achievement. It is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

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