Top Ten Books

There's a meme out on the internet right now where friends are listing their top ten books. I love writing about books (and have listed many on my blog over the years), so I thought I'd give it a try.



The two most influential authors from my childhood were Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott. I read all the Little House books and many of Louisa May Alcott's.  It was after re-reading them with my girls that I realized how much of their writing I have carried with me throughout my life. Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott provided me with an "inner view" of history. It was through their writing that I began to envision the past. I grew up with an idea that history was about ordinary people living out their lives and this influenced my approach to history as an adult.







I think I learned more about history from James Michener than I did from any high school history class. I remember finding those thick books on the shelves at my local library and just plowing through them--Chesapeake and Hawaii were both favorites.








The influential reads from my college years also take on a history theme. Two books rise to the top:

In Small Things Forgotten and The Transformation of Virginia. These two books helped me to see how historians use material culture to make sense of the past.  After reading The Transformation of Virginia, I saw the landscape in entirely new ways.


While I continued to read many, many history books after college (I got an MA in history), the books that rise to the top are all focused on family life.

We were well on our way with Waldorf Education when I read Mitten Strings for God. Katrina Kenison helped me think about how to integrate our family life with Waldorf Education.

Barbara Kingsolver's, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was one of those books that helped define a new path for our family's nutrition. I have always loved books about food, but this one actually pushed us to make some changes toward local food and we've never looked back.

My mother's book, Our Own Snug Fireside, is another book that I just have to list for this phase of my life. I said it best in a previous post: Her work has truly shaped what I have wanted for my own family--a home filled with traditions, handwork, and a yearly rhythm of foods and activities shaped by the New England seasons.

Colleges that Change Lives was integral to the college search. The author articulated an approach to education that seemed like a natural next step after Waldorf. Passionate teaching, residential communities, holistic admissions policies, and a focus on personal growth became the parameters in our search.


So, if I'm following the internet MEME, I have one book left to list. I've just turned 50 and I am at a turning point. I'm not sure what the 10th book should be. I find myself being quite introspective these days, reading some poetry, memoirs, and meditations. I think I'll list book #10 in a few years.

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New Year Projects

I enjoyed the Granny Square Sampler Crochet Along so much that I've been hunting for a 2014 project. I found this Downton Abbey KAL and I have convinced some friends to do it with me. We live about an hour apart so we won't be watching every together but we are all going to do the project.

I was going to do this project, but there's no way I could pass on the Downton Abbey project.

I have also thought it would be fun to do a reading challenge and am pondering this one. I love Historical Fiction.

I am nervous about this coming year. There are lots of decisions to make and changes to come. It helps to have a project to do with friends. Anybody want to join in?

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Life on the Water

We had a wonderful Father's Day weekend on the water. Because of last year's hurricane and flooding, they had to move the annual balloon festival to a new field--one right in front of a pond by our house. We got up VERY early in the morning to watch the launch from the water.

We counted 18 hot air balloons!

We drank our coffee, ate muffins, and had fun taking photos.

This beaver hung out with us for quite awhile until he slapped his tail and told us to go away.

It was a lovely morning and we were home by 8:00 a.m.!

On Sunday we packed boats, a big picnic, books, journals, and all sorts of stuff and headed off for a day-trip. This lake has lots of big granite boulders to enjoy.  We had a swim and enjoyed our picnic.

It was fun to have no agenda.

Helen got out her journal and did some writing in the middle of the lake.

Nelson went off to search for loons.

Liz fed fish.

I stopped for awhile and enjoyed my book--The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club--

a paperback my mother-in-law picked up for me at her local thrift shop. Perfect for getting wet :)

We all came home a bit sore from all the paddling, but satisfyingly tired and relaxed.

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Light the Advent Candle Two

Our Advent Sunday afternoons are turning into simple family moments this season. This Sunday, while Nels took the girls off for a bit of Christmas craft supply shopping, I did a thorough clean and made some thumb cookies--our current favorite Christmas cookie. After everyone got home, we pulled down the Christmas decorations and books from the attic, built a fire, unwrapped the decorations one by one, and each found our favorite books.

Liz found her beloved elf hat.

Quite a change from just 2 years ago.

I enjoyed looking through Take Joy by Tasha Tudor.

Liz and Helen enjoyed looking through Letters from Father Christmas.

I also enjoyed looking through The Medieval Christmas which has some wonderful old traditions in it.

Here's the thumb cookie recipe:

Cream 1/2 lb butter and 1/2 c sugar. Add 2 egg yolks and 1 tsp vanilla. Add 2 c flour. Refrigerate 24 hours (although I only did for an hour), roll in balls, press down the center, fill with jam.
375 for 10 minutes. Pretty simple recipe!

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Summer Reading

Summer is almost over and I am hunting for a few final great summer reads. Here is some of what I have enjoyed this summer. Any suggestions for a final, fabulous book to end summer with a bang?

First--two books from the World War II era--

What comes after surviving? In 22 Britannia Road, a Polish family is shattered by World War II and tries to find their way back together again. I enjoyed this book of three tales--the Mother's experience in Poland, the Father's experience in battle, and the family's experience trying to find its way back together again.

I have a friend whose family escaped the Holocaust to Shanghai and thus I have become interested in reading more. I particularly enjoyed the first part of this book as the author described the bustle of 1930s Shanghai beautifully.

But then, a few books that take place in Oxford. Perfect companions for a  trip to England.

This might have been my favorite read of the summer. A Discovery of Witches is about a historian who discovers an enchanted manuscript in the Bodleian libary. Part love story, part adventure, all tied up with history. One reviewer describes it as "Twilight meets the Da Vinci Code", but I still really liked it.

I tend to not be a mystery reader, but a friend suggested Laurie King's Mary Russell series and I'm hooked. Mary Russell, aged 15, meets Sherlock Holmes in the English countryside where he has retired to raise bees. They immediately strike up a friendship and he takes her one as his apprentice.  English countryside, Sherlock Holmes, Oxford? Just the right reading mix for my summer.

I also really like the covers of these mysteries :)

Finally, I read massive amounts of Civil War books for work including Uncle Tom's Cabin which is pushing me towards compiling a list of unread classics to consider this fall.

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Book Talk

I have been immersed in the art world during these cold winter months and have some books to share--

The Hare with Amber Eyes is a family memoir where the author traces an inherited set of Japanese netsukes back through the generations to their original owners. On the way he discovers (and reveals) the art world of nineteenth-century Paris, the turmoil of Odessa, the final days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and a family's trials during World War II. The author's family was one of the wealthiest Jewish families in Europe and it was interesting to follow their story.
I then moved on to The Lake of Dreams. This book is set in the finger lakes region of New York and tells the story of a young woman who uncovers her family's hidden past beginning with some old letters and scraps of fabric that she finds in her family home. Connected to these documents are a series of stained glass windows depicting biblical scenes dominated by strong women. The descriptions of glass blowing and the creation of the windows are beautiful.


Finally, I read Clara and Mr. Tiffany, which took me into the Tiffany Studios and the world of the Art Nouveau. This was an interesting story focused on a recent discovery that many of Tiffany's designs--the lamps in particular--were actually designed and created by women. The author does a wonderful job of bringing robber barons, sweatshops, and the tenements of New York during the Gilded Age to life. I enjoyed the women's perspective.


I still have Steve Martin's new book, The Object of Beauty, sitting on my "library shelf." This book takes place at Sotheby's, and I've heard good things about it.

I didn't set out to read a series of books on art, but I am so glad this group of books ended up on my shelf. Have you read anything great lately? I'm always on the hunt for some good books.

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Book Week: A Bookish Weekend

Our bookish weekend began on Friday with a trip to the library for Helen and me. We stopped at a local cafe for iced coffee and meringues. We had planned to browse through our library books, but ended up chatting with friends passing by instead.

On Saturday we all headed into Woodstock for the big "Bookstock" event which was a day-long festival of book sales, poetry reading, author signings, and displays by local publishers. There was tent after tent filled with authors, publishers, and books. A delight for a book-loving family like ours.

Helen always has such trouble pairing down all the books she finds at these sales.

And what did she do when she got home? She started cutting one up to make a "book box..."

...and applying gesso and mod podge to alter another.
She is very inspired by these soul journaling prompts as well as other altered books sites.

Of course, Lou also became inspired
(I think it was being able to use a utility knife that truly inspired her).
Sigh....I had just vacuumed.

And look what I found at one of the sales....Swallows and Amazons.
Guess what we'll be reading aloud next week???

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Book Week: Food Lit

My Mother had A Homemade Life sitting on her coffee table when I went for a visit this week. To be honest, I had tried to read this book last year and didn't like it. This time around I enjoyed it, particularly the recipes. I like how she describes cooking various dishes--rarely with recipes--but then writes them down with actual measurements. I would like to cook more the way she does by throwing a bit of this and that into a pan. She always seemed to have a bit of really good cheese and fresh tomatoes ready to go.

I have liked food memoirs and food lit since I first discovered Laurie Colwin just after college. Her book Home Cooking was my first such book. I then went on to read all her columns in Gourmet.


Garlic and Sapphires is the very funny account of Ruth Reichl as she goes undercover in NYC as a food critic. I loved this inside look at the New York restaurant world.

In The School of Essential Ingredients a group of individuals gathers each Monday night for cooking class. The students are transformed by the dishes they create each week as is Lillian the teacher and master chef.


In Bread Alone, Wyn, estranged from her husband, builds a new life in a bakery where she builds on the skills she had gained while apprenticed to a bread baker in France. Breadmaking tips are sprinkled throughout.

Five Quarters of the Orange, by the same author as Chocolat, takes place during and after occupied France and is a scrapbook of recipes and memories. It is a slow, delicious read.


Heat brought me right into a New York restaurant kitchen. The author signs on as an unpaid servant to one of New York's big chefs in an effort to understand more about the restaurant business. I liked the behind the scenes aspect of this book and also enjoyed this...um....swashbuckling male author. He is very funny.


Probably my all-time favorite foodie book is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle . I think I can safely say that Barbara Kingsolver changed our family's ways. (I'm also a devotee of Michael Pollan. His bit of advice not to eat anything your grandmother couldn't have made is fab.)

The Cookbook Collector now awaits me. Can't wait!

That was a fun journey down memory lane. I hadn't realized how much food lit I had actually read. It makes me want to scour the farmer's market tomorrow for some really yummy cheese, a baguette or two, and some fresh garlic!

My thanks to all of you who commented yesterday on read aloud books. I have had fun going through Amazon and looking at your recommendations. Have I missed any really great food lit?

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Book Week: Finding a Summer Read Aloud

I am on the hunt for a good read aloud for vacation. We love to sit about and work on puzzles while someone reads. Some of the books I'm considering are:

I will admit that we tried Swallow and Amazons a few years ago and it did not go over well. Time to try again!  Past successful read alouds have included: Little Women, Little Men, Jack and Jill, Alice in Wonderland, The Little Princess, The Phoenix and the Carpet, and The Burgess Bird Book. I tend to go for the classics when reading to the girls as I know they won't necessarily choose them on their own.

I chose these because they all take place by the sea--the house we have rented for our vacation is an old fisherman's cape located on an isolated spit of water in Nova Scotia. 

I am always on the hunt for good books to suggest to Lou. She doesn't dive into books as readily as her sister. Any title suggestions would be appreciated. She is at a tricky age--she wants more sophisticated material, but the YA books are too mature for her.  The last time I asked for suggestions was two years ago when she was nine. Wow did we gain a lot of good ideas and many were perfect for a 9 year old.  All those recommendations are at the top of the blog. Can't wait to see what some of you with older children suggest.

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