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
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]
Nanette’s Baguette by Mo Willems Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Nanette’s Baguette by Mo Willems; illustrated by the author. Hyperion Books, 2916. 32 pages; $17.99 (hardcover); reading level: ages 4-8. If you’re on the lookout for every word that rhymes with “Nanette” and “baguette,” this is the book for you. Tucked away in the playful pile-up of rhymes (and it is quite the pile-up!) is… [Read More]
>> View All of Connie’s Children’s and Young Adult Book Reviews
Latest Adult Book Reviews by Connie
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead; Doubleday, 2021. 318 pages; $28.95 (hardcover); reading level: adult. Through fast-moving scenes that careen from humorous to tenderhearted Whitehead deftly juggles a host of themes here: racism (both inside and outside the black community), family ties, getting ahead in a hostile environment, and change—both particular (the forced uprooting of black… [Read More]
The Post Mistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton; HarperCollins, 2021. 402 pages; $27.99 (hardcover); reading level: adult. We meet twenty-eight-year-old heiress Nanée Gold (a beautiful American expat living in Paris, loosely based on a real figure) in the year 1938 as she pilots her private airplane and socializes with an artistic community that includes both… [Read More]
Shelf Life; Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef; Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Shelf Life; Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller by Nadia Wassef; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021. 224 pages; $27.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. In 2002, at age 27, Nadia Wassef, her older sister, and a friend decide to open abookstore strikingly different from the ones available in Egypt under President Hosni Mubarak: “those mismanaged by the… [Read More]
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster, 2018. 464 pages; $17.00 (paperback); reading level: Adult Centering her 1887 tale around the Swan, an inn on the River Thames, Setterfield goes to great lengths to insist that this is an old-fashioned story: The first chapter is entitled “The Story Begins…” and… [Read More]
The Ravenmaster; My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife Reviewed by Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
The Ravenmaster; My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London by Christopher Skaife; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. 241 pages; $26.00 (hardcover); reading level: adult. When he retired from the British army after twenty-four years of service, Christopher Skaife realized that “there are not a lot of options for history-loving storytelling infantry soldiers…who… [Read More]