In which is contained a list of books that I enjoyed over the past year enough to recommend to others in search of something worth reading. Even if Jill Paton Walsh is not and never will be Dorothy Sayers, despite her best efforts. (And, fair warning, if any book is purchased via these links, I get a cut. On the other hand, you could just follow my example and check them out of the library.)
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto by Julia Child
Boys Adrift:The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax
The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball
Family Feasts for $75 a Week:A Penny-wise Mom Shares Her Recipe for Cutting Hundreds from Your Monthly Food Bill by Mary Ostyn
Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock, and Finding Myself on a Farm by Jeanne Marie Laskas
Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls-Sexual Identity, the Cyberbubble, Obsessions, Environmental Toxins by Leonard Sax
The Heavenly Man:The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun by Brother Yun
Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson
A Man Called Peter: The Story of Peter Marshall by Catherine Marshall
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
The Painted Word by Tom Wolfe
Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream by Adam Shepard
The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture by David Mamet
Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids by Kim John Payne
The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn
Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians by Fergus Kerr
The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had by Susan Wise Bauer
Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Leonard Sax
Birth and Midwifery
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent
The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions by Penny Simkin
Giving Birth: A Journey Into the World of Mothers and Midwives by Catherine Taylor
Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method: A natural approach to a safe, easier, more comfortable birthing by Marie F. Mongan
The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
Fiction
All That Glitters by Frances Parkinson Keyes
". . . And Ladies of the Club" by Helen Hooven Santmyer
The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Patton Walsh
The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin
A Presumption of Death by Jill Patton Walsh
Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife by Peggy Vincent
The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas, and All Other Labor Companions by Penny Simkin
Giving Birth: A Journey Into the World of Mothers and Midwives by Catherine Taylor
Hypnobirthing: The Mongan Method: A natural approach to a safe, easier, more comfortable birthing by Marie F. Mongan
The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth
Fiction
All That Glitters by Frances Parkinson Keyes
". . . And Ladies of the Club" by Helen Hooven Santmyer
The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Patton Walsh
The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin
A Presumption of Death by Jill Patton Walsh
