The Fiction Book List

Ask any woman (and sometimes men) who is interested in self sufficiency what their favorite books are and almost always in her favorites will be the Little House on the Prairie books and I agree. They are excellent sources for information. They were some of the first books that I read and I have the whole series here but there were others; books that have stayed with me and books I go back to read when I just need to go back in time for a while and get away. Here are a few of my favorites.


A Day Must Dawn by Agnus Sligh Turnbull- This is a book I found in my grandmother's books when we moved into her house after she died. An absolutely excellent story of the first pioneers, not those who expanded west but those who came first. This book takes you back in time to a small settlement and there problems in their homes and with the Indians and other outsiders. This book also has some basis in fact though the story is purely fiction.

The Landbreakers by John Ehle-If I had to throw the rest away and just keep one book, this book might be the one. I first read this book in a Reader's Digest book. I kept it forever and only as an adult got the complete version. This is another first pioneer book but about those who went further south. It is about a man, Moony Wright, and his struggles to make a home in what then was a very remote western North Carolina. I love John Ehle books and wish he had written more because he knows his history and does it well.

The Trees, The Fields and The Town by Conrad Richter- Three great books though you can buy the whole trilogy in one book. These books are so well written. Anytime someone speaks in the books he has changed the spelling so you know what they would have sounded like. They are about the building of a town from just a few people in the wilderness to when the town is fully built. The story follows one woman and her quite large family. They very well done. I can't imagine the research that went in to making these books.

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink- One of my all time favorites. I got the book as a kid and lost it for a while then found a copy again as an adult. I believe I have two of them now-just in case! The book is based on fact written by Caddie Woodlawn's grand-daughter from stories she was told as a child about her grandmother who lived in Wisconsin as a child.

A Fair Wind Home by Ruth Moore- This was a book that was in my grandmother's books and I took it when we sold the house when I was nine. I sometimes wonder if she loved the book as much as I do. I have carried it and A Day Must Dawn with me all these years. This book is totally fiction. She changes Boston some to fit her purposes but it is excellently written. These are a type of pioneer as well but of those who lived on the coast and knew boats, how to make and use them.

Seven Alone by Honore Morrow-The story of a family headed west when both parents die and a young boy is (14 I believe) is left to take his brothers and sisters the rest of the way to Oregon. This book is based on fact and this really did happen though the story again is a writer's version of it.

Christy by Catherine Marshall- Some of you may have heard of this one as it was a bit more popular. Christy is about a young school teacher who goes into the Appalachians to teach school and finds the people there still quite uneducated and rough but she eventually grows to love them. It is an great book. I still remember the first time I read it and how the ending totally surprised me. That doesn't happen often with a book.

These books,, as I said, have been, for the most part, in my possession since I was a child. I keep them and every few years read them again. I never get tired of them. Seldom does that happen with newer books. There are some good books out there but none that seem to be worth reading a second time especially about the historical subjects that I like. I have however kept one whole series and that would be the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon. Most definitely a woman's series in my way of thinking because it mixes historical romance and pure fantasy in with it. A woman is transported back in time to historical Scotland through a stone henge. Putting the romance and fantasy aside the book was quite well researched though I am sure the romance and fantasy are most of why I like the series so much.

The only other book that I have read as an adult that I would never give away is Alice's Tulips by Sandra Dallas. It is about a young newlywed who's husband goes off to war and the troubles she runs into while he is gone.

I'm sure there are other books I would never give away, after all I have shelves and shelves full of books, but these must be the most important ones as these were the ones I could think of without even having to go to the shelves.