30+ All-Time Favorite Books to Add to Your Reading List

For my 30th birthday (which was a few years ago now!) I wrote shared my thirty favorite books.

I live my life in words–reading them, writing them, tracing their origins and finding the spaces where language connects–so I really couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to celebrate the start of a new decade. 😉

Children’s Books

Anything Sandra Boynton. These bouncy, silly, simply illustrated board books are the perfect length and the perfect cadence, and probably the only baby books that Steve & I don’t get tired of reading. A few of our favorites are Snuggle Puppy, Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs!, and Hippos Go Berserk.

   

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. The tale of a gentle bull who accidentally gets put in a bull-fight. My kids love this one, and I’m a big fan of the pretty line-art.

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney. A sweet, quiet story about creating beauty in the world, this one has beautiful illustrations that I loved to pore over as a child.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann. This book is fantastic. It has a line-by-line script for each lesson so you never feel like you’re fumbling as you teach your kiddo to read, and the early lessons only take about 10 minutes! I use it when my kids hit about 4 or 4½. My 6-year-old reads about 2 grades above average, and I’m just starting it with our middle kiddo.

Mandy. Written by Julie Andrews Edwards (yes, the ‘the-hills-are-alive’ Julie Andrews!) this story of how orphaned Mandy created a playhouse home in an abandoned cottage brought my little-girl imagination to life.

The Ramona Quimby series by Beverly Cleary. Before Ivy + Bean and Clementine, there was Ramona. Scrappy, tender, and forever curious, Ramona was a source of solace and humor as I braved the growing-up years of elementary school.

Beauty by Robin McKinley. My very favorite retelling of Beauty and the Beast. This is another one that lets your mind linger awhile in magical places. I still have my paperback copy from childhood, and it is well-worn and still well-loved.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. I majored in Writing & Literature, and as such had to sit through a lot of ice-breaker round-tables where everyone listed their favorite books. While everyone else professed their love of Crime and Punishment, Little Women, and other literary classics, I had to be honest: I’d way rather read Harry Potter. 🙂

 

The Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This now-classic series about a pioneering family living in the wilds of 1870’s America was a fixture of my childhood. Read them. They are wonderful.

The Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. A delightful series that follows the girlhood of Betsy, Tacy, and Tib in 1800’s Minnesota. I read these as a little girl and they made my heart happy. I recently gifted them to my 9-year-old daughter, and she just ate them up. 🙂

The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. Based on a true story, this book about a young Native American girl forced to survive alone on an island off the California coast was one of the first books that made me feel connected to and invested in the past.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. My middle-school best friend and I nicknamed each other Anne and Diana because of our mutual love for these wonderful books. Lovely reminders of how to find “scope for the imagination” and humor in the everyday. Read them all!

Non-Fiction

• The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith. Oh this book! It is funny, it is vulnerable, and it gave me the courage I needed to make nail holes in our walls, hang pictures, add curtains, and make our house feel like HOME. One of my favs–I keep it on my nightstand and flip through it all the time.
• Food Rules by Michael Pollan. Before I read this book, I really didn’t think I could ever do enough research to understand healthy eating. But Michael Pollan’s Food Rules breaks good eating down into (forgive the pun) bite-sized pieces. This book made it easy for me to shift our eating towards better foods without feeling guilty, pressured, or confused.
• The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Forgive this book it’s tongue-in-cheek title–it is actually a deep look at how men tick, and what they need from their wives. In the first years of our marriage, whenever I got angry or upset with my husband, I would sit down and read this book. It helped me understand his perspective and finally recognize that we DO think differently, and that that’s okay.
• Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by MindyKahling. Kahling’s first book. I laughed aloud while I read it. So much. Sometimes in public. But I also really loved how she shared her insecurities. I know this isn’t a really meaty, meaningful pick, but I loved it, so it makes the list!
• On Writing by Stephen King. King’s memoir about writing was fascinating (and not a bit scary haha). I loved the behind-the-scenes look at how his books became mainstream, and, as a writer, I found his advice about the writing process invaluable.
• If I Have to Tell You One More Time by Amy McCready. If I could afford it, I would carry copies of this book around to give away to struggling parents. For real. This book turned me from a yeller who cried almost every night about the terrible parenting job I was doing, to a calm, confident mom who doesn’t nag and rarely has to remind. Yeah. It’s life changing.
• The Entitlement Trap by Richard & Linda Eyre. Another great parenting read, this addresses how to teach our kids to value what they have, and how to earn what they want. It also has lots of great suggestions for building strong family connections and traditions. It’s one I’ll read again and again.
• The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. This book chronicles author Gretchen Rubin’s year-long experiment in changing little things in life to make a big impact on her happiness. It is perfect to read in small bits. I’ve bought this for others and always feel, well, happy, when I reread my own copy. I’m also looooving her latest, Better Than Before, which is all about mastering your habits. I’m working on curbing my chocolate addiction! 😉
• Essentialism by Greg McKeown. If you’ve ever wondered why you never have enough time for the things that really matter to you, this book has your answers. It’s all about discovering where you can contribute best and learning how to distill your busy schedule into a meaningful life. (This is cheating a little bit since I haven’t completely finished it, but part way through I’m already looking forward to going through this one again with a highlighter.)

Fiction

• Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow. A story of love, life, and survival in the goldrush era of California, Calico Palace is my go-to comfort read. There is just something about it that draws me in and makes me feel like I’m home. It’s better for whatever ails me than a pint of Ben & Jerry’s. (And that’s saying something.)
• Anything Kate Morton. Kate writes the new Gothic novel, full of suspense, intrigue, and secrets nested within other secrets. Her stories are always set against fantastic scenery and writhe with history. I recommend starting with The House at Riverton (a bit Downton-esque), The Forgotten Garden, or The Secret Keeper.
• Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca. This classic suspense novel starts a little slow, but it caught me in its web mid-way through and I was very, very hooked. Much better than the movie versions. 😉
• Jan Karon’s Mitford Years series. It’s been a long time since I spent whole afternoons reading a book, but At Home in Mitford hooked me so fast that I spent a very happy weekend living there myself. Refreshingly simple and sweet, you’ll feel like you know the characters in no time.
• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. A woman loses all her memories of the last ten years of her life and wakes up with children she doesn’t know she’s had, and a life she can’t remember living. Read it!
• Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. My favorite Agatha Christie so far, this classic murder-mystery had me so wound up that I physically jumped when someone knocked on the front door when I was reading it!
• Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman. A gentle love story set against the backdrop of the Canadian wilderness in the early 1900’s. I love stories about courageous, innovative women, so this was a winner for me.
• Moloka’i by Alan Brennert. A long time ago I heard wisps of information about the leper colonies that existed in the Hawaiian islands. Moloka’i tells their story, and I was floored by how much I enjoyed it. Its characters–so real in their ability to evoke pity, love, hatred, and hope–became strung in my heart, and I thought about them after I put the book down each day. It was a testament to the enduring strength and hope of the human spirit and I loved it.

So tell me–which of these books have you read? Are any of them on your to-read list? And which of your favorites can I add to my library queue?