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 read my first Agatha Christie this year! And Then There were None was a page-turner.
I also read the epic Middlemarch and loved it.
The Remains of the Day was very good.
I finished reading the Mitford books this year. I’ve talked about them before. I tried reading them in my early thirties and couldn’t get into them. I’ve loved them in my early forties. They are easy, light reads with loveable characters. Sometimes that’s just what you need.
Christmas with Miss Read is 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 last 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 last year, 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 also enjoyed Devil Water.
Rebecca is another really good one!
So Big
I would love to own this Black Dog Opera Library box set. I own the Black Dog Opera La Traviata
I love Rumer Godden, and especially In This House of Brede
Willa Cather is probably my favorite author and I love these two volumes of her novels: Early Novels and Stories
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)
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
Jon Krakauer
Faith:
I was given a copy of Ruth Chou Simons’ Gracelaced this year and I LOVE it. This is the book that will be my go-to gift. It is full of the most beautiful art and photography along with seasonally themed devotions that I have found very relatable.
The same kind person who gave me Gracelaced, also gave me a copy of Tattoos on the Heart. I read it. Jonny read it. Gabe read it. I’m about to pass it to someone I think would appreciate it as well. It’s wonderful.
I read Bread in the Wilderness last 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!
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
I find Mother Theresa’s writings to be very encouraging and recommend No Greater Love
I also love St. Therese and while I have read her own Story of a Soul
Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry
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):
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
Nature and field guides:
For the Nature Lover in your life, Great Possessions is lovely.
Nature Anatomy is so fun! I think it would make a 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
Homesteading and Beekeeping:
My top read in this category in 2018 was The Shepherd’s Life. Well worth reading-I loved it.
Sylvia’s Farm: The Journal of an Improbable Shepherd
Jonny enjoyed Adventures in Yarn Farming
The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally
Larkspur loves her copy of Gardening with Chickens.
The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally
Natural Dyeing:
My longtime favorite on this topic is Wild Color
Knitting:
People Knitting!
The Knitter’s Book of Socks
Anything by Elizabeth Zimmerman is probably a good choice. I have and love Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac
Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book
And finally, my favorite Stephanie Pearl-McPhee book is Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot’s Bag of Knitting Tricks
For the children:
Jonny just started reading Little Britches to Silas and Job. We love this series so much and are excited to be reading them again! Little Pear and Little Pear and his Friends are another couple of books that I couldn’t wait to read again after reading them to our older kids when they were little.
Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away are favorite read alouds. The Saturdays is the first in a great series.
My girls received these for Christmas last year. Not so much books you read, as books you make. This probably would have been more appropriate on my other gift list!
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. Larkspur read Calico Captive (different author) last year and really enjoyed it. I think it would make a good read aloud as well.
I’ve been reading and the girls have 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 a few years ago and loved them. They were the first chapter books that she got really excited about.
The Sophie Mouse books are great early reader chapter books.
We have read several of the books in Tomie DePaola’s 26 Fairmount Avenue Series
We have really enjoyed this Beatrix Potter The Complete Tales
We also like the Calla edition of Stories from Hans Christian Andersen
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
Picture Books:(the images themselves are links to the books, more fun that way for pretty children’s books!)
(I better stop now!)
Board Books:
Indestructibles For Baby:
These are on my wishlist for the kids, and some of them will end up being Christmas gifts:
These are on my wishlist! I usually buy myself a book or two (or three) for my birthday which is coming up end of the month.
Do you have any other suggestions for my wishlist?
Happy Reading!!!
My 2019 good gifts list is here.
Thank you for all these lovely suggestions! You might love The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. It’s so beautiful and is inspired by the Russian fairy tale.
Thanks for this, Ginny! I read the entire Gilead trilogy at your recommendation this year, and I loved all three books so much. “Home” was actually my favorite :)!
I’m so glad you loved them! I know other people feel the same way as you about Home! Funny how stories touch us each in different ways!
Highly recommend The Honey Bus – it’s such a beautiful tribute to her grandfather and his bee keeping!
Hi Ginny:
Thanks so much for a GREAT reading list !! I have never read Anne of Green Gables but will now put it on me “to read” list as per your recommendation.
I would like to recommend (for Larkspur and perhaps Beatrix) the Flavia De Luce series by Alan Bradley (11 year old chemistry whiz solves local village mysteries.crimes). Also, Larkspur may enjoy Erin Morganstern’s The Night Circus — and her new novel The Starless Sea (I’m reading that now). Mary Stewart and Georgette Heyer are also good reads — can you tell that I have a penchant for mysteries !
My all time favorite author is Dorothy Dunnett who has two fabulous historical series published: The Chronicles of Lymond (6 vols.) and The Niccolo Rising series (8 vols.). I enjoyed Kate Mosse’s The Winter Ghosts (it is a fabulous ghost story) — actually I would recommend any novel by her as well as Kate Morton.
Thanks again for such a great reading list.
Best,
Judith
I love your book lists and appreciate all the time it must take to put them together. You often mention favorites of mine from childhood but also have introduced us to many books which are now beloved favorites. Thank you for that! My boys and I have lately been enjoying the How To Train Your Dragon chapter books by Cressida Cowell. They are different from the movies and the Netflix shows (although those are fun, too – we just prefer the books, as usual!) My family is Norwegian on my mother’s side so anything even loosely based on the Norse culture or Vikings is of interest. These stories are so funny and full of adventure – just like my boys. There are absolutely wonderful audio recordings of them read by David Tennant who I swear could read the phone book and make it interesting – so many voices! And these have original music as well which make them even more special. Happy Christmas!
What a great list of books. I love giving and receiving books for birthdays and Christmas. I am on the 9th and last book in the series “The Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill” by Jennifer Breckstrand. . If you enjoy Amish stories this is a winner. I also read “Wives and Daughters” by Elizabeth Gaskell. “That Hamilton Woman” was another interesting read. I do enjoy reading young adult and children’s books,too. Hope you receive many books for your birthday and Christmas. As a children I loved “The Bobbsey Twins” and The Honeybunch” series and of course my Golden books.
Marilyn
I finally read my first Wendell Berry book, A Place on Earth, and it was wonderful. It is slow paced but the human observation, connection to nature, and the use of language are exceptional. Highly recommend.
This is a nice list. liked the “Anne Of Green Gables ” series,Rebecca.”A Tree Grows In Brooklyn”,”Mary Queen Of Scots”,Ivanhoe,”Lorna Doone”,”Ramona” are some of my favorite books. As a child The “Honey Bunch” and “Bobbsey Twins”were my favorites.
Marion
I always had books on my Christmas and Birthday lists. As soon as I could read ,reading was a passion. Every time I could buy something at the dime and ten cent store books were my first choice. I have all of my Nancy Drew,Judy Bolton,Beverly Gray books and others from my child hood. Now i love reading historical books. Have you ever read “A Tree Grows IN Brooklyn”? It is a wonderful read. I loved “That Hamilton Woman” and am now reading Christmas books.
Joan
I read all eleven mystery books, especially during the heat of the DC area in August-September, by Louise Penny. Look online and read them in order. It takes place in Quebec, so I learned a great deal about the conflicts between the French and English. (The French inspector’s frustration about always having to wait and drink tea before interviewing) What I like about mysteries is learning about the culture of the settings. Another good author is Yrsa Sigurðardóttir with books set in Iceland and PD James, the essential British mystery writer. The good writers, like these, do not leave out the violence that police work encounters, but allows you to appreciate the impact it has on the officers.
Thank you Ginny!! Love your suggestions! We’ve loved the little pear series, who is coming to our house book and others! Merry Christmas!!
Thank you for your lists. I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem with the new format of the website. The highlighted text is very faint and difficult to read and the regular text is also somewhat difficult to read as it is very light. I wonder if there is some kind of adjustment that would remedy this. I enjoy the posts very much and have been reading and following for a number of years.
Hi Shari! I’m sorry! The website hasn’t been changed in a couple of years other than the color of the links (highlighted text). Is this something you noticed recently? I darkened the blue color of the linked text after reading your comment and hope that helps. 🙂
Reading your book list was like talking about and remembering old friends. James Harriet, little Britches, Calico Captive, Ann of Green Gables, and Willa Catcher. Funny how books hold so many good memories. Thanks for this list, I wrote down a few new ones to try. And yes, I will buy myself some books, wrap them, and then have them come from hubby.
I love all your book recommendations, whether they are in these lists or just mentioned in your blog. So thank you for the effort you put into it. I was wondering – do you keep all your books? Do you even buy them, or use the library? I think I could almost drown in books if I wasn’t quite strict about how many I bought, although I do enjoy passing them on as well.
Hi Anna!
I do have a good many books. But I limit myself to what will fit on the shelves I have (rather than buying more bookshelves 🙂 I periodically go through things and give lots of books away. I use the library quite a bit, especially for children’s books and modern fiction. I also usually check out cookbooks before buying them-I rarely buy them. I buy classics (almost always used Penguin editions) because I think they are good to have around, especially with a houseful of kids that may need to read them someday. I also buy reference/non-fiction books that I think will be useful longterm. But all in all, I am pretty strict about what I buy and buy much less now than I did ten years ago. And I am getting more and more ruthless when I purge my books. But for some reason, I can’t get away from loving to give books as gifts-though as far as my kids go, it’s maybe one per birthday and a few for Christmas that my younger kids can all share. My favorite gift to give and receive! Sorry for the complicated and scattered reply! But as a book lover, I guess you understand!
We discovered Gone-Away Lake this year and loved it. It and the follow-up are great as audiobooks as well, we listened to them on a road trip and our kids, ages 9-5 didn’t want to stop. My daughter, 9, also loved Doll People and the follow-up books.
If your girls love books about dolls, one we loved was Hitty: Her First One Hundred Years by Rachel Field. Rosemary Wells has an illustrated version so my younger kids enjoyed it as well.
Oh, one more thing… Based on the books that your husband and boys like, I wonder if they’ve read Canoeing with the Cree? It’s by Eric Sevareid, and is based on a true story of a canoe trip from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. It’s a great adventure story, one that my husband enjoyed – and even gave as a gift to a gentleman that gave us a canoe this past summer.
God bless!
Thanks for the recommendation!
I second the recommendation of Canoeing with the Cree. I enjoyed it and my 16 year old son did too.
I enjoy reading your book recommendations. I think I first heard of Gilead on your blog, and was intrigued enough to read it. Very good. (The Wilkie Collins book you mention was also one I first heard of on your blog, and read and enjoyed.) It seems your taste in fiction is similar to mine: I’m a fan of Willa Cather, as well as Sigrid Undset. Have you read Ida Elisabeth? I read Alessandro Manzoni’s The Betrothed too, several years ago, and another book that comes to mind is Eugenio Corti’s The Red Horse. It’s also epic, and is based on an Italian Freedom Fighter’s experience in World War II. I loved reading about the relationships of the beautiful Catholic families in The Red Horse. It was also the first book that opened my eyes to the ugliness of Communism in the Soviet Union.
Have you read Elizabeth Goudge? I find her books to be like a kind of balm. I bet you’d like them. Green Dolphin Street was the first of hers I read, and The Dean’s Watch, Pilgrim’s Inn, The Rosemary Tree – even The Little White Horse (which is supposed to be a children’s book).
I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there. 🙂
Have a blessed and peaceful Advent season,
Melisa
Elizabeth Goudge has been recommended to me so many times–I am not sure why I haven’t read any of hers yet–or have I? Sometimes I have to search my blog to see what I’ve read because I usually mention it here and I am very forgetful. The Little White Horse sounds very familiar…