Books
Memories of Bliss (SCM, 2003)
Memories of Bliss asks “What is sexuality? ” “What’s going on when we get turned on?” and “How can we live our sexualities well?”
Whilst rooted in philosophy, it’s a practical book. Some people have found it witty and funny too. It took me ten years to write. “What took you so long?” some people have asked. Trying to find out what sexuality is…that’s what.
The book begins: “I gasped as his hand landed firmly but gently on my naked back. Lying on my front chatting to Phil I had been anticipating its arrival but there was no mistaking my mid-sentence intake of breath as he touched me. I tried to remember what we had been talking about as his other hand greeted my torso and worked its way around my shoulders and down my spine in warm, stimulating movements.
“It was not long before I gave up on conversation. Chatting has seemed easy when we were not in contact but it became more of an effort the more Phil’s palms worked up and down, up and down. There was a sense of rhythm in his movement into which I wanted to relax.”
“Jo Ind’s Memories of Bliss is currently being passed around my friends and going down absolutely juicingly, to coin a phrase. It’s the only book on sexuality that I’ve wanted to say a great big orgasmic ‘YES’ to.” (Ruthie, www.24-7talkback.com)
“A truly outstanding book” (www.sjp.org.uk)
Fat is a Spiritual Issue (MOWBRAY, 1993)
Fat is a Spiritual Issue looks at the relationship between spirituality and eating disorders. I started writing it as soon as I had finished my degree in philosophy and English at York University, when I recognised that religion can either help or hinder a healthy attitude towards the body. A spirituality which engenders a careful listening to hunger is more helpful than one which creates mistrust of appetites, for example. Fat is a Spiritual Issue was published to critical acclaim several years after I had finished it.
Book blurb: “This is a fresh, witty, clear and at times shockingly honest story.
“Jo Ind’s challenging and penetrating insights will inform anyone with an interest in body-image, sexuality and spirituality, experience-based theology, eating disorders and addictive behaviour.”
“I love Jo Ind’s vital, cheeky style – why don’t other books about ‘spirituality’ have this breath of real life?” Monica Furlong
“It hit me in the centre of my chest, cracked me open and made me honestly and lovingly face things deep within my heart. As I finished the book I was sobbing with great big tears of relief and joy.“ (Letter from a reader)
“She begins and ends with a cheese sandwich and in between has more that feels gut right to say about God and being alive than any other single book I’ve read.” (Wendy Jennings, The Church Times.)
Click on the images to buy the books from Amazon.
Fifty Shades of Gold (Self-published, 2013)
To celebrate my fiftieth year, I wrote Fifty Shades of Gold. It contained a distillation of the texts that sustained me as I make my way through midlife. When my boy was younger, I found it almost impossible to read whole books and therefore developed an affection for pocket-sized wisdom that could be imbibed at bus stops and in check-out queues. I still lead a dip-in-and-out kind of life, snatching what I need in bite-sized bits. Fifty Shades of Gold is a reflection of where I’m at, both in content and in format.
I made a website to accompany my book, Fifty Shades of Gold.