Connie’s Favorite Books
The following books, read when I was in elementary school, are indelibly etched in my mind. I remember wanting to be in the world of these books and imagining that, if I just read them hard enough, I would be transported from my own mid-western suburban world to places where dragons lived on islands and ordinary children like me could take flight, solve mysteries, and fight for everything that was good.
- My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett
- The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink
- The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
- The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
- Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers
- Mary Poppins Opens the Door by P. L. Travers
- Twig by Elizabeth Orton Jones
- Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
- Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
One reading is not sufficient for some books. The three titles below I could read every year and never tire of.
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
- Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
- My Antonia by Willa Cather
My favorite picture book of all time is Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig. Many picture books are written for kids with the awareness that adults are looking on. This one is written only for kids. Adults can listen in, of course. But the gentleness, agony, and final resolution are perfectly tailored, perfectly kid-sized.
When I was young, I was almost exclusively a reader of fiction. Today, I read mostly non-fiction and biographies are often my choice. David McCullough’s John Adams was the inspiration for my own young adult biography, The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton. Surely, I thought, young readers deserve a biography in which the subject actually speaks, through letters and journals, just as John Adams did in Mr. McCullough’s capable hands.
- John Adams by David McCullough
- Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller
- The Life of Thomas More by Peter Ackroyd
I lead a book discussion group once a month and spend a lot of time choosing the titles we read. I read book reviews and consult with several reader friends whose opinions I’ve come to respect. I am not a voracious reader, I’m a picky one. When I decide to read a book, it’s a commitment and I don’t take it lightly. Below are some books I’ve read recently and enjoyed.
- Lila by Marilynne Robinson
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
- Running the Rift by Naomi Benaron
- Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
- The Hare With Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal
- The Tiger by John Vaillant
Latest Children’s and Young Adult Book Reviews by Connie
Everybody’s Book; The Story of the Sarajevo Haggadah by Linda Leopold Strauss Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
Everybody’s Book; The Story of the Sarajevo Haggadah by Linda Leopold Strauss; illustrated by Tim Smart; Kar-Ben Publishing/Lerner, 2024. 32 pages; $18.99 (hardcover); reading level: Grades 2-5. This true story begins in 1350, when a stunningly beautiful haggadah (a book that narrates the Jewish passover along with other Bible stories) is presented to a Spanish… [Read More]
Night Becomes Day; Changes in Nature by Cynthia Argentine Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Night Becomes Day; Changes in Nature by Cynthia Argentine; illustrated with photographs; Millbrook Press/Lerner, 2022. 32 pages; $27.99 (hardcover, reinforced library binding); reading level: Ages 7-12. Academic credentials can distance a nonfiction writer from young readers. Here, the author’s degrees in English, environmental science, and environmental law have accomplished the opposite. Argentine’s meticulously-researched narrative is… [Read More]
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott; Signet Classic, 2012 (originally published in 1828 and 1829). 507 pages; $5.95 (paperback); reading level: high school/adult. I hadn’t read this book as a child and, with the 150th anniversary of its publication upon us and a new movie adaptation due out, I thought it might be time. It… [Read More]
Steam Jobs in Cyber-Security by Cynthia Argentine Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Steam Jobs in Cyber-Security by Cynthia Argentine; Rourke Educational Media, 2019. 48 pages; $10.95 (paperback); reading level: grades 4-8. This book’s lively page layout will be the first thing to engage young readers. A traditional text is surrounded by three running sidebars suggesting a computer screen with multiple open windows. But Argentine’s words more than… [Read More]
On Christmas Eve by Ann M. Martin Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
On Christmas Eve by Ann M. Martin. Scholastic, 2006. 149 pages. Reading level: grades 2-5. It’s 1958 and Tess McAllister is in third-grade. This is the year, she decides, that she really will stay awake and meet Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. She has a special wish this year: Her best friend’s father is very… [Read More]
>> View All of Connie’s Children’s and Young Adult Book Reviews
Latest Adult Book Reviews by Connie
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry; Counterpoint, 2004. 186 pages; $16.95 (paperback); reading level: adult. The year is 2001. Hannah Coulter is looking back on the seventy-nine years of her life, spent mostly in the fictional Kentucky town of Port William. In words that are both plain-spoken and elegant, she chronicles her childhood, the loss of… [Read More]
This Is the Chance!; The Great Alaska Earthquake, Genie Chance, and the Shattered City She Held Together by Jon Mooallem Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
This Is Chance!; The Great Alaska Earthquake, Genie Chance, and the Shattered City She Held Together by Jon Mooallem; Random House, 2021. 315 pages; $18.00 (paperback); reading level: adult/young adult. Beginning with the epigram (a quote from Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town) and a “Cast of Characters” followed by Acts One, Two, and Three (instead… [Read More]
Beethoven; A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
Beethoven; A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge; Yale University Press, 2020. 276 pages; $39.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. Timed to appear for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020, this book’s fascinating structure drew me in. Each of the nine chapters centers on a work by Beethoven and focuses on “a theme… [Read More]
Foster by Claire Keegan Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
Foster by Claire Keegan; Grove Press, 2022. 92 pages; $20.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult/young adult. Originally published in Great Britain in 2010 (with a shortened version appearing in The New Yorker that same year), both a movie (under the title The Quiet Girl) and the book Foster finally appeared in the U.S. in 2022. The… [Read More]
Brideshead Revisited; The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge…
Brideshead Revisited; The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh; (originally published in Britain, 1944); Back Bay Books, 2020. 402 pages; $17.99 (paperback); reading level: adult. In 1944, as Waugh’s magnum opus was going to press, he observed that Brideshead Revisited “is steeped in theology, but I begin to agree that… [Read More]