Besides walking, hiking, bike riding, my photography and writing, I spend a lot of time reading. I’ve especially loved reading children’s classics and some real old-fashioned tales from the 1930s and 40s that are either hard to find or out of print, as well as re-reading old favorites and discovering the new. I’m only listing the books that kept my interest; they are listed in no particular order. I’ll continue to add to this list as I read more. Click on the title of a particular book to link to Amazon.com for further synopses. They are all rated “G,” although some have mature themes. Those books highlighted in bold indicate new additions made in the past 4 weeks. If I read a book but didn’t consider it noteworthy, it won’t appear here.
Books about Maine, the White Mountains, living in the woods, and disaster preparation/survival skills:
Unique Maine Farms by Mary Quinn Doyle (ISBN 978-0-692-27472-9)
Naturally Curious by Mary Holland
Dilly the Deer: A True Story of Love, Healing and Family by Melanie Butera
Leave Some For Seed by Tom Hennessey
Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart
Maine’s Treasure Chest: Gems and Minerals of Oxford County by Jane C. Perham
A Place Called Maine: 24 Authors oon the Maine Experience edited by Wesley McNair
A Home In The Wilderness: Away From It All in the Allagash Woods of Maine by Dorothy Boone Kidney
Northwest Passage by Kenneth Roberts
Lydia Bailey by Kenneth Roberts
Get Your Pitchfork On! The Real Dirt On Country Living by Kristy Athens
Chickens in the Road: An Adventure in Ordinary Splendor by Suzanne McMinn
We Took to the Woods by Louise Dickinson Rich
Only Parent by Louise Dickinson Rich
The Wilderness from Chamberlain Farm: A Story of Hope for the American Wild by Dean B. Bennett
Fly Rod Crosby: The Woman Who Marketed Maine by Julia Hunter & Earle Shettleworth Jr.
Green Illusions by Ozzie Zehner
The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals That Protect us From Violence by Gavin de Becker
Build the Perfect Survival Kit by John D. McCann
Build the Perfect Bug-Out Bag by Creek Stewart
31 Days to Survival by M.D. Creekmore
The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food and Love by Kristin Kimball
Challenge of the North by William Byron Mowery
This Life Is In Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone by Melissa Coleman
No Life for a Lady by Agnes Morley Cleaveland
Nine Mile Bridge by Helen Hamlin
Hikes in and around Maine’s Lake Region by Marita Wiser
Maine Sporting Camps by Alice Arlen
Running to the Mountain by Jon Katz
Man Bites Log by Max Alexander
The White Mountain Ride Guide by Marty Basch
50 Hikes in Southern and Coastal Maine by John Gibson
Eastern Birds by Petersen Field Guides
Track Finder by Dorcas Miller
Jewish Books (religious and secular)
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author by Herman Wouk
A Backpack, A Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir by Lev Golinkin
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
Catch the Jew! by Tuvia Tenenbom
Our Crime Was Being Jewish by Anthony S. Pitch
The Family: A Journey into the Heart of the 20th Century by David Laskin
In the Sewers of Lvov by Robert Marshall
In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist by Rachel King Feuerman
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman
Future Tense: Jews, Judaism and Israel in the Twenty-First Century by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The Jonathan Sacks Haggada by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
The Secrets of the Notebook: One Woman’s Quest to Uncover Her Royal Family Secret by Eve Haas
Upon the Head of a Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal
Anna’s Shtetl by Dr. Lawrence A. Coben
Rachel Calof’s Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains by Rachel Calof
A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways Into Wilderness, Wilderness Ways Into Judaism by Rabbi Mike Cumins
Let Me Tell You A Story: A Memoir of a Wartime Childhood by Renata Calverley
I Shall Live: Surviving the Holocaust Against All Odds by Henry Orenstein
The Watchmaker’s Daughter by Sonia Taitz
The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner
To Heal a Fractured World by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
Israel National Trail by Jacob Saar and Yagil Henkin
A Blessing of Bread by Maggie Glezer
At the Edge of the Abyss by David Koker
The Seamstress by Sara Tuvel Bernstein
Start-Up Nation by Dan Singer and Saul Senor
Return: Daily Inspiration for the Days for the Days of Awe by Erica Brown
The Koren Yom Kippur Mahzor (commentaries by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks)
Yossel: April 19, 1923 A Story of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Joe Kubert
Out of the Depths by Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau
Srugim (Israeli TV series available on DVD)
Katmandu (Israeli TV series available on YouTube)
The Chameleon in the Closet by BJ Rosenfeld
This is a Soul: The Mission of Rick Hodes
The Devil’s Workshop by Adolf Burger
Precious Objects by Alicia Oltuski
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman
Nefesh Shimshon Shabbos Kodesh by R. Shimshon Dovid Pincus ztz”l
Sefer Tehillim by David HaMelech
Bending Toward the Sun: A Mother-Daughter Memoir by Leslie Gilbert-Lurie
The Girls of Room 28: Friendship, Hope, and Survival in Theresienstadt by Hannalore Brenner
Spiritual Boredom by Dr. Erica Brown
Getting to Know Your Self by Anonymous (Bilvavi Books)
Getting to Know Your Soul by Anonymous (Bilvavi Books)
If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi
The Reichmans by Anthony Bianco
To The End of the Land by David Grossman
The Book of Paradise by Itzik Manger
Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska
Back to Berlin: An Exile Returns by V. B. Carleton
Just Great Writing (personal favorites)
(I read this trilogy by Ferrol Sams at least once a year every summer!)
When All the World Was Young by Ferrol Sams
The Whisper of the River by Ferrol Sams
Run With the Horseman by Ferrol Sams
A Truck Full of Money: One Man’s Quest to Recover from Great Success by Tracy Kidder
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Unforgettable: A Son, A Mother, and the Lessons of a Lifetime by Scott Simon
American Guerilla In the Phillippines by Ira Wolfert
Guerilla Surgeon by Lindsay Rogers
Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician by Michihiko Hachiya
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto: A Novel by Mitch Albom
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Writing for a Good Cause by Joseph Barbato & Danielle S. Furlich
Elephant Company by Vicki Croke
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs
The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Gramm
This Light Won’t Go Out: The Life and Words of Esther Grace Earl by Esther Earl
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison by Piper Kerman
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Glitter and Glue: A Memoir by Kelly Corrigan
A Million Years With You: A Memoir of a Life Observed by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
This Is The Story of a Happy Marriage by Anne Patchett
Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
The Searchers by Glenn Frankel
Children Of God Go Bowling by Shannon Olson
State of Wonder: A Novel by Anne Patchett
Let Go Now: Embracing Detachment by Karen Casey
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley
Conning Harvard by Julie Zauzmer
Why I Left Goldman Sachs by Greg Smith
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Take the Risk: Learning to Identify, Choose, and Live With Acceptable Risk by Ben Carson, MD
No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Bin Ladin by Mark Owen
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead by David Shields
My Mother, Your Mother by Dennis McCullough, M.D.
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Wild Company by Mel and Patricia Ziegler
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden
Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life by Martin Seligman, Ph.D
Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other by Sherry Turkle
Surviving After Cancer: Living the New Normal by Anne Katz
For You Mom, Finally by Ruth Reichl
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Lightning Keeper by Starling Lawrence
The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Life, On the Line by Grant Achatz
A Change Of Heart by Claire Sylvia
The Cuckoos Egg by Clifford Stoll
On Writing by Stephen King
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
Too Close to the Falls by Catherine Gildiner
After the Falls: Coming of Age in the Sixties by Catherine Gildiner
Coming Ashore: A Memoir by Catherine Gildiner
Little Princes by Conor Grennan
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
Midlife Crisis (people “of a certain age” who embark on a Great Adventure)
Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment by Katrina Kenison
Running to the Mountain by Jon Katz
Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels by Ree Drummond
Man Bites Log by Max Alexander
Bicycle Across America by Barbara Siegert
Diet and Health
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Brain’s Way of Healing by Norman Dodge, M.D.
The Healing Heart: Antidotes to Panic and Helplessness by Norman Cousins
Recipes from the Root Cellar by Andrea Chesman
366 Healthful Ways to Cook Leafy Greens by Linda Romanelli Leahy
American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen
Say Goodnight to Insomnia by Greg D. Jacobs, Ph.D
Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Dash Diet for Weight Loss by Thomas Moore MD
Eating Mindfully 2nd edition by Susan Albers
Walk Tall! 2nd edition by Sara Meeks, PT
Forks Over Knives: The Cookbook by Del Sroufe
The Etiquette of Illness by Susan Halpern
Suitable for Preteens
The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart and Diana Sudyka
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart and Diana Sudyka
The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart
Lost On A Mountain In Maine by Donn Fendler
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer by John Grisham
Where the Lilies Bloom by Vera & Bill Cleaver
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien
The Other Side of the Mountain by E. G. Valens
TV
I haven’t owned a TV since 1991, but nowadays one can easily stream TV shows on one’s computer. That said, there aren’t too many shows I’d consider noteworthy enough to mention here, with this exception:
Foyle’s War (British series, 9 seasons)
Midlife in Maine 