There are books…and then there are BOOKS.
This page is reserved for the works that have resonated for a lifetime, encouraged me to think differently about the world, and have helped me to better understand its history. They have made me want to literally walk inside of them, between their covers, and among their characters.
Some of them have caused me reconsider the way a story can be told. Others so effectively transported me to another time and place that during the time I was reading them I actually felt as if I were living in a different world. And a few have encouraged me to think differently about human nature. The titles I mention from younger reading days, I’ve highlighted for their power to transport and engross, to have kept me up all night reading with a flashlight even if the light was supposed to have been asleep hours earlier. They are by no means just for children.
Hopefully this list of titles will help you to better understand what kind of a reader I am. If these are the sorts of stories, sagas,and novels you appreciate, then perhaps our reading styles are compatible and my reviews can steer you in the right direction and out of your current “book jam.”
Please write to me about some of your own most meaningful reads. I’d love to know what other life-changing books are just waiting to be added to this list.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabrielle Garcia Marquez.
Stones From the River (1997) by Ursula Hegi
Corelli’s Mandolin (1995) by Louis de Bernieres
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Ahab’s Wife (2000) by Sena Jeter Naslund
The All of It (1986)by Jeanette Haien
Hunting and Gathering (2007) by Anna Gavalda
Independent People by Haldor Laxness
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Out of Africa (1937) by Isak Dinesen
West with the Night (1942, 1983) by Beryl Markham
The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
From my Younger Reading Days
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank
The Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodges Burnett
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart was a book I came across last year that left a deep and lasting impression. Beautifully written and haunting. For some reason, her writing reminds me a little of Wallace Stegner.
Thanks so much for this “meaningful read” recommendation. Can’t wait to read it.
Thank you so much for this recommendation. I’m looking forward picking up a copy of The Stone Carvers!
Glad to hear it. If you enjoy The Stone Carvers, Urquhart wrote several other novels that were also really good. The Stone Carvers just happens to be my personal favorite. Guy Vanderhaeghe and Robertson Davies are also Canadian authors that I think are quite wonderful and under-appreciated.