I love making book lists! 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 Fifth Chinese Daughter this year and I really enjoyed it. Gilead was great too.
Peace Like a River was incredibly good.
The Winthrop Woman was my big fiction read of 2016. I loved it!
So Big was one of my favorite reads in 2015. Rebecca was another one.
I would like to collect all the Black Dog Opera Library collection. I started with La Traviata last year, 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.
Kristin Lavransdatter is one of my all time favorite books. This edition is especially beautiful as well. I read the first two books in Sigrid Undset’s The Master of Hestviken this year and really loved them. I need to finish that series.
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) and it is one of my favorites of hers, after My Antonia, one of the very few books I have read more than once. Just typing the title, I want to go pick it up and read it again right now.
Katherine is sooo good, and the reason I read The Winthrop Woman (same author.)
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.
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.
Larkspur and Beatrix’s favorites this year:
I’ve been reading and the girls been listening to the audio versions of the Anne of Green Gables series. I also read Jane of Lantern Hill this year.
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.
Faith:
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 this 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 this year were:
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…
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.
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 all the children:
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!)
Happy Reading!!!
My previous gift list is here.
Karen says
Against the grain is great. Have you made the beef stew yet? To die for.
jill says
Thank you for doing this. I don’t know when I’ll find the time to deeply peruse the book list (or actually read!) but I WILL find it! I love the gift lists too–they are full of things we like too!
Penelope says
Ooo! A Year With The Church Fathers looks wonderful! (I am always on the lookout for books for the daily reading with my teens for our morning spiritual reading time!).
Jenn W says
Wonderful list! I’m curious what your older boys like to read. I have an 11 year old son. I’m interested in book recommendations for him.
Jen says
Thank you for this great resource! I have already used some of your ideas on the gift list… I’ll be keeping this one too…
Lisa says
A fellow Kristin Lavransdatter fan! I read it years ago, and have now read it several times. A few friends and I all love it so much we joke that we should form a fan club 🙂
Eileen says
Great list and I put many on my wish list…thank you Ginny!
Marion says
Thank You for this list. I agree with many of your choices.
Marion
eva says
Oh I’m so happy about your list and your recommendations, I look what I can get in German and which I want to read in English. It’s a very very helpful list. Thank you and have a good time ,peaceful through the hurrying advent and best wished for the third candle on Sunday. Eva (sorry for my bad written English)
Diane says
Thanks, Ginny! My Amazon cart is now loaded with so many of your recommendations! I enjoy truly enjoy your recommendations! I started reading Anya Seton’s books and I’m hooked! She is one of my favorites now!
I’m afraid I only buy one or two books at a time or check them out in the library, but my Amazon cart is a nice place to keep them until I’m ready to purchase. 🙂 Hope your family has a very blessed Christmas!
Ginny says
Which of Anya Seton’s books have you like the most after Katherine and The Winthrop Woman? I’m ready to read another of hers and can’t decide!
Carrie says
I wait with much anticipation for your gift guide and book guide! Your blog is one of my most frequently read. What a delight it is to see the world through your camera lens! Blessings. Carrie in Richmond, VA
Jennifer says
Tommi dePaola’s 26 Fairmount Avenue series is wonderful and just as you describe–an all ages favorite and excellent early chapter book series.