This is an updated version of my previous book lists with new additions at the beginning of each category. The links in this post are Amazon affiliate links, and when you make a purchase through any of them we earn a small percentage. Thank you!
Adult Fiction:
I just started reading Christmas with Miss Read. It’s lovely.
My Aunt Genie sent me a copy of Book Girl, and I think it’s a great resource and fun read. (Not fiction, but about fiction so I’m putting it in this category!)
I read Gunnar’s Daughter, by Sigrid Undset this year and found it intense (and quite short compared to Kristin Lavransdatter, also by Undset) but quite good!
I loved Gilead and Lila, and think you could read them in any order you please. The third in the trilogy, Home, was good, but I found it sad.
I haven’t read The Yearling in many years, but listened to it on audiobook recently, and it’s definitely in my top three favorite books, possibly number one. (The other two being, My Antonia and Kristin Lavransdatter.) I think it’s one that many of us read too early (and dismiss)–it’s really not a children’s book in my opinion.
Peace Like a River was incredibly good. I know people reread this one.
The Winthrop Woman and Katherine by Anya Seton are so, so good. I may read Devil Water in 2019.
Rebecca is another really good one!
So Big was one of my favorite reads in 2015.
I would love to own this Black Dog Opera Library box set. I own the Black Dog Opera La Traviata and appreciate having background on the composer, the story of the opera, along with the complete Libretto (text of the opera itself–yes, I had to look that up!), commentary, and the opera on CDs.
I love Rumer Godden, and especially In This House of Brede and Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy. Another favorite is An Episode of Sparrows (New York Review Children’s Collection).
Willa Cather is probably my favorite author and I love these two volumes of her novels: Early Novels and Stories and Later Novels. I read Shadows on the Rock (Vintage Classics) last year and it is one of my favorites of hers, after My Antonia, one of the very few books I have read more than once. I recently purchased this volume of her short stories, and think it would make a lovely gift.
And Wilkie Collins! The best of his that I’ve read is The Woman in White .
And finally, epic and beautiful if not rather long, The Betrothed: I Promessi Sposi (Penguin Classics). I will re-read it someday.
General Non-fiction:
All My Patients Are Under the Bed is a fun read for the cat lover in your life.
Jonny’s favorites:
A Walk in the Woods and The Contrary Farmer.
Favorite’s of his and our older boys are:
One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, and Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage (Seth and Keats read this one as well).
Jon Krakauer is a favorite author, Michael Perry is another.
Faith:
I read Bread in the Wilderness this year and it gave me a new appreciation for the Psalms.
Made for This: The Catholic Mom’s Guide to Birth, is just that, a guide to childbirth rooted in the Catholic faith. It’s a beautiful book, one I wish I had many years ago. If you enjoy birth stories, there are quite a few of them included in the book. I contributed the story of Mabel’s birth via planned c-section, so if you are interested, it’s there!
I’ve just started Rachel Balducci’s Make My Life Simple and I’m already gleaning so much wisdom from her!
Something Other than God. I loved this one, and I’ve given several copies as gifts.
I finally read The Diary of a Country Priest and I’m so glad that I did.
Silence is incredibly intense. Shook me up for a long time. It made for a great book group discussion, but I probably won’t ever see the movie.
I gave my sister, Abby, A Year with the Church Fathers for her birthday.
For the kids, Dear Pope Francis is priceless.
I really loved My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir.
The Reed of God is perfect Advent reading.
I find Mother Theresa’s writings to be very encouraging and recommend No Greater Love and Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light: The Private Writings of the Saint of Calcutta.
I also love St. Therese and while I have read her own Story of a Soul, I also really liked this little book: The Love That Keeps Us Sane: Living the Little Way of St. Therese of Lisieux (Illuminationbooks.).
Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry is lovely and so is A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul.
Health and Special Diet Cookbooks:
I read so many books about Hashimoto’s last year. There are many good ones, but I think this was my favorite. For leaky gut information I read Eat Dirt and it really jumpstarted my healing journey. I highly recommend it.
Our most used cookbooks last year were (and still are):
and I would love to have this one:
Photography:
Capture the Moment is full of inspiration!
I am often asked for camera and photography advice. The book I always recommend, and the one I used to learn how to shoot in manual mode from is Understanding Exposure. That book would make a great gift for someone wanting to learn. A similar book by the same author, that I also recommend (and possibly prefer) is Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Photography Field Guide: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera. Along those same lines, though not a book, this is the lens that is on my (Nikon D600–there are newer models now like this one)camera 95% of the time.
Nature and field guides:
For the Nature Lover in your life, Great Possessions is lovely. I think I might order Scratching the Woodchuck by the same author for myself. I have a birthday coming up… (I didn’t end up ordering it last year, but it’s in my cart now!)
Nature Anatomy is so fun! I think it would make a particularly great gift.
For the tree lover, we are on our second copy of Remarkable Trees of Virginia (you don’t have to live here to appreciate this book.) I also really like The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grown-Ups.
Larkspur received Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species for her birthday and it has been very useful. We also really like this guide to Eastern Birds’ nests.
Some of our most used field guides include: North American Wildlife: An Illustrated Guide to 2,000 Plants and Animals (we’re on our 3rd copy), Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont: A Naturalist’s Guide to the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia (Southern Gateways Guides), Caterpillars of Eastern North America, Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide, and A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guides). I don’t have a favorite tree identification field guide, but have Native Trees of the Southeast: An Identification Guide on my wishlist.
Homesteading and Beekeeping:
My top read in this category last yer was The Shepherd’s Life. Well worth reading-I loved it.
Sylvia’s Farm: The Journal of an Improbable Shepherd and Goat Song are other favorites.
Jonny enjoyed Adventures in Yarn Farming.
The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally, Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening, and The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers.
The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally is our favorite beekeeping resource, though my favorite book about beekeeping in general is A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them. The Backyard Beekeeper is a good beginner’s guide.
Natural Dyeing:
My favorites are Wild Color and Harvesting Color. I am eagerly awaiting this book‘s release.
Knitting:
People Knitting!
The Knitter’s Book of Socks, The Knitter’s Book of Wool, and The Knitter’s Book of Yarn would all make great gifts.
Anything by Elizabeth Zimmerman is probably a good choice. I have and love Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac, Knitting Without Tears: Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes, and The Opinionated Knitter.
Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book really is a great resource.
And finally my favorite Stephanie Pearl-McPhee book is Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot’s Bag of Knitting Tricks.
For the children:
My girls are getting these for Christmas. Not so much books you read, as books you make. This probably would have been more appropriate on my other gift list! I think they will love them.
I read the Julie of the Wolves trilogy to my older girls this year and we loved them.
Calico Bush was a really good one as well, a perfect read aloud.
I’ve been reading and the girls been listening to the audio versions of the Anne of Green Gables series. Jane of Lantern Hill has been a favorite of all.
Larkspur read The Doll People series last year and loved them! This was actually the most excited she has been about a series of books.
The Sophie Mouse books are great early reader chapter books.
We have a dozen or more collections of poetry for children, and I occasionally add a new title. Most recently I added A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children to our collection.
We have read several of the books in Tomie DePaola’s 26 Fairmount Avenue Series and I highly recommend them. Endearing stories of family life with a nice bit of humor, they make great read-alouds that will span a wide range of ages as far as interest goes. I also think they would make great first chapter books for young readers. I just ordered a few more of them to put under the tree this year.
We have really enjoyed this Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales for years. You can’t go wrong with Beatrix Potter!
We also like the Calla edition of Stories from Hans Christian Andersen. The illustrations by Edmund Dulac are some of my favorites. Many of the Calla Editions look beautiful.
James Herriot is another favorite. This volume for children looks lovely: James Herriot’s Treasury for Children: Warm and Joyful Tales by the Author of All Creatures Great and Small (we have an older version of it.)
I’m halfway through reading this beautiful book to my kids. I love Philip and Erin Stead and combining them with Mark Twain is just brilliant.
Picture Books:(the images themselves are links to the books, more fun that way for pretty children’s books!)
(I better stop now!)
Finally, these are on my wishlist for the kids, and some of them will end up being Christmas gifts:
Happy Reading!!!
My good gifts list is here.
Jan R. says
Ginny,
I have read many books listed by you or others on the KAL days! I can always trust your recommendations and tell my librarians when you have discussed a book I am checking out. They love that I get book reviews from a blogger and that sends me into their branch! I absolutely LOVED Home and am currently starting Gilead and will move on to Lila after. I appreciate knowing I won’t get any recommendation for smut or trash from you!
Marilyn says
Thank You for this list of great books. So many to choose and decide.
Marilyn
Gwen D'Amelio says
Thank you for the list. I read In This House of Brede on your recommendation, and it was lovely. I think that I’ll pick up The Yearling to reread over Christmas break…and a box of tissues.
For Advent, I’m finding the book The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux by Fr Jacques Philippe helpful.
Joan says
Ginny thank You for the list that includes books for every ones taste.
Joan
Marion says
Thank You for the variety in the list.
Marion
Holly says
Shout out for Roxaboxen!!!!! Ha, didn’t know anyone else out there knew about this special little treasure 🙂
Amos & Boris is brilliant, too.
Antonia says
I am thinking of getting the Christmas with Miss Read book for a friend…would she need to have read the other books to enjoy it? I hope to get to a Miss Read in 2019. Thank you for your wonderful list!
Ginny says
No, she wouldn’t as far as I can tell. I am on the first story, and it definitely stands alone and isn’t related to the one Miss Read book I have read in the past. In fact, I am enjoying this book more than The Village School thus far.
Linnea Woolridge says
These lists are wonderful! Half of my amazon cart for loved ones are your recommendations!
Ginny says
Yay!!!
Liz says
Thank you for sharing this list! Just in time, I needed some inspiration.
Melissa says
Wonderful! Just a note that the book Rebecca is by Daphne du Maurier. Maybe you meant Katherine by Anya Seton?
Ginny says
Yes, I did! Thanks so much for catching that. Too much cutting/pasting. 🙂
Antonia says
I had wondered too…wondering what you think of Rebecca. I would love to discuss it with someone.
Dawn Harris says
I always LOVE to read your carefully curated book lists. I have discovered some of our all-time favorites with your help. However, they weaken my resolve to cut down on buying books. 🙂 So many wonderful choices! Thank you!
victoria says
Your post today reminded me of a comment that I tried to post (and failed) several weeks ago when you mentioned beavers at work on your land.
A fascinating book about beavers appropriately named EAGER the surprising, secret life of beavers and why they matter written by Ben Goldfarb. Goldfarb is an environment journalist who writes about wildlife management and conservation biology. For a great deal of his research he met with Drew Reed, a beaver mover (who knew such a thing existed??), in Wyoming. Reed specializes in what else, beaver moving, relocating beavers from areas where they are creating problems for farmers and ranchers to less developed areas where they can do their own thing and enhance the environment by creating wetlands useful for all sort of animals, insects and migrating birds.
A fascinating read.
Heidi says
This is so comprehensive & I just appreciate it so much!!! Something on here for everyone. Thanks a ton Ginny!
Catherine says
I love Gunnar’s Daughter so much! Also, thank you for the picture and board book suggestions: they’re the best I have ever seen!
Do you have any knitting books (or even patterns on Ravelry) that you can recommend for knitting a wool baby romper? I am not a *super* experienced knitter and am looking for something simple. Thanks!
Jenny says
Mommies say shhh is my favorite kids book of all time ?