Seven Books

A friend has been posting reviews of the seven books that impacted her deeply at the time she read them, books that changed her outlook or view of life. I've been reading her posts and thinking about the books that have influenced my life and thinking. I can't say I read most of what's on her list, but she has inspired me to create my own list.

Seven books. The number is so limiting, isn't it? Just seven? But here goes:

1. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I read it first as a junior in high school and hated it. In my sheltered upbringing there was no place for what happens in this book. The rawness of the people, the brutality, and above all the ending horrified me. I hate it, and yet the story of the Joads haunted me. I read it again in my 20's, again in my 40's and with each reading my understanding grew, and my heart broke all over again.

From the NEA Big Read website

2. Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing. These people were back-to-the-landers before the hippie generation was even born. I marveled at their approach to life, to doing for themselves such hard tasks as building a house from stone found on their land and digging a pond by hand,  growing their own food, and weaving their political and social ethics into simple living. I began to think about the possibility of doing something similar, to be self-sufficient and independent as they were.

Image from Goodreads

3. The Meta Givens Cookbook. Okay, laugh if you like. But learning to cook from scratch and make my own bread? Talk about liberating! I realized I did not have to depend on stores and factories for my food; I could make it myself. My growing drive for self-sufficiency was further fed by Meta Givens, along with other books like Recipes for a Small Planet, Stocking Up, and Stalking the Wild Asparagus.

4. Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. She later became a famous author, but this book that tells of her determination to live on an abandoned orange grove in central Florida in the 1930's captivated me. A single woman, she bucked the odds and convention to find a place where she could write and support herself. While some of it might make contemporary readers' eyebrows shoot up, her story is a compelling one of strength, courage and compassion. One day I hope to visit Cross Creek.

image from Amazon.com

5. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This was required reading in college. I was in my middle-thirties then, and the story was beyond belief to me. Could such things really have happened in America? My political views, always left of center, became firmly entrenched there. And my determination to put as few processed foods as possible on my table grew even stronger.

6. Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. It has been years since I first read it, and years since my second and third reading too, but this book always has a place on my bookshelf. I suppose it was my first exposure to British folklore and I was fascinated then and now by the topic.


7. The Buffalo Creek Disaster by Gerald M. Stern. The tragedy of the collapse of a mine wastewater dam and the horror and loss of life happened just a few years before I moved to West Virginia. I had heard about it, but this book brought it heartbreakingly alive to me. It opened my eyes to this place I had moved, to its terrible beauty and history. I began reading every book the library had about West Virginia, Appalachia and the people who call this place home, and it's a habit that continues to this day.

image from Amazon.com

I am sure that if I created this list tomorrow, it might be different. There are so many books that made and continue to make a strong impression on me. How about you? What books would be on your list?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.