Unforgetable Books

I was challenged on Facebook recently to list ten unforgetable books–books that have stayed with me over the years for one reason or another.

The idea was not to think too hard, just write down the first ten to come to mind.

I’ve been reading since the age of four and I have a degree in English Literature, so there were many unforgetable books to choose from!

This was my quick list, with explanations:

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I’d seen this little green book around for years at our church, but on a summer’s trip to Europe where I could only take three books, I chose it. I figured being away, thinking about my life and needing something meaty, I needed a book that would do the trick.

Perfect.

“Jesus bids us come and die,” to ourselves, Bonhoeffer admonished and I got to apply that to myself several times in the six weeks I spent with Swiss relatives. I talked about the book to every English speaker I met on that trip–I was twenty years old–and ended up giving away my copy to a fascinated-in-the-book guy I met at a youth hostel.

A touchstone.

The Tapestry by Edith Schaeffer

I’ve written about this book’s affect on my life elsewhere, but suffice it to say, it taught me to buckle down and live the life God has given me with thankfulness and actions of beauty. Edith was a role model in many positive ways to my life.

I read this one at the ripe old age of 27.

Decision Making and the Will of God by Gary Frieson

A gift from my dear friend Jane Gangi, this book taught me about understanding God’s will. Do I need to ask him what to eat for breakfast, or should I use the brain he gave me to determine what makes the most sense? Liberating.

I was 29 when I read it.

 

The Wood and the Trees by Mary Elgin

A seemingly light romance published in 1967, I found this in the Monterey Public Library when I was 31. Elgin only wrote three books before an early death, but her pithy descriptions and the unusual way she tackled what was then highly provocative subject matter, surprised me.

Long out of print along with her other two novels, I read them periodically as comfort novels. This line resonated, in my cynical sense of humor:

 “You can’t exactly hate a child you’ve given birth to, but you can dislike him.”

What is an unforgetable book?

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I think it’s one that haunts you and whose words and ideas pop into your mind at surprising times. You may find yourself unconsciously identifying with a character you read about in one of these unforgetable books, and not quite know how you know how to react, but you do.

White Road by Olga Ilyin

Read at 24 when I was weeks away from giving birth to my first child, 3500 miles from home and relatives, and with my husband out to sea on a submarine (and his return in time for the birth problematic). White Road spoke to several things in my life: the ache of missing my daring husband; the loneliness of having a baby by myself; the tragedy of Russian history and the determination that somehow God would work it all out.

He did.

And I have some beautiful pieces of jewelry now.  🙂

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald and BIDDY Chambers 

The words belong to OC, but Biddy put the book together. My life has been changed in many, many ways as a result of reading this devotional for the last 15 years. I was in my 40s when I finally picked up a copy.

And of course, I’ve used themes from it in my WWI novel A Poppy in Remembrance.

Waiting for Snow in Havana by Carlos Eire

This one turned up on my library reserve list the day before I left for a week-long outdoor camp with my daughter’s sixth grade class, so I was in my 40s. I read by flashlight that week because this was so deliriously fun, yet tinged with poignancy. The language is over-the-top Latin and I simply loved it.

Every time I’ve read it.

A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle

My favorite writer from childhood, Madeleine L’Engle and her books were of great interest to me as I reached adulthood. I bought this book as a 23 year old adult as soon as it turned up in the bookstores. It taught me about death and letting go, abandoning people who aren’t good for you, and how much the love of a family is important in the growing up years I had just reached.

It was early in my first pregnancy, husband out to sea again, and I needed comfort.

Airs Above the Ground by Mary Stewart

I love Mary Stewart’s books for her plucky heroines, gorgeous descriptions, exotic locations and, in this book, her dialogue. I’ve read it numerous times (another comfort novel), but what stands out is my read when I was 29 and we’d just been in an automobile accident.

My husband was out to sea, of course.

I missed him a great deal in a frightening time in my life. There’s a bit of dialogue in this one where a husband unexpectedly turns up from his job, surprising his wife with a warmth and humor I desperately needed that cold Connecticut night.

Reading it silently, then aloud, was almost like having my husband home with me for just a short time, telling me things might look difficult, but they would be all right.

And they were.

Especially when he came home.  🙂

The Birth Order Book by Kevin Leman.

I read it the first time in my twenties when I was trying to figure out just when I’d gotten myself into, I, a first born with younger brothers married to a baby with older sisters.

“That’s the most stable type of marriage,” Leman wrote, “but you make him put his clothes in the hamper.”

I called my husband at work on his duty night and read that section aloud . . .

My daughter and I listened to this book on audio two summers ago during a long car ride and laughed as we picked out all our family member’s traits together. Fun, and insightful.

Bonus: The best book I’ve read the last five years? Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. But you probably already know that!

 Tell me some of the unforgetable books in your life.

 

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Bonhoeffer, Chambers, Friesen, Stewart, Ilyin, Schaeffer, Eire, Elgin, L’Engle Leman and other unforgetable reads. Click to Tweet