Tag Archives: #classics

Wish-list 5: Beautifully Written Literature

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I haven’t posted a wish-list of books in a while, and when I explored the books I’ve added to read, and to group together to read back to back, I knew this would make a marvelous Wish-list 5 post.

All Creatures Great and Small is a classic and I feel I know it well but haven’t read it-I believe. At least, not that I can remember, but who would forget a story like this one? Anyhow, I can’t wait to pick up a copy and get started on the “unforgettable world of James Herriot.”

I love reading stories that take place in Ireland and certainly “Foster” by Claire Keegan is the perfect story to read during the summer months.

The artist and creative side of me finds “Theo of Golden” by Allen Levi an intriguing premise and Theo who visits a coffeehouse and purchases the portraits on the wall to give them back to their “rightful owners” sounds fascinating!

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather sounds like an intriguing read, particularly because I love stories about vicars or vicars that are included in stories. This story centers around Father Jean Marie Latour 1851 comes to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico…

When I came across Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry and read the first few lines of the description, “This is a book about Heaven,” says Jayber Crow, “but I must say too that . . . I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell,” I knew I had to read this story to find out more about this statement the author wrote.  

Be sure to read the book descriptions below! Have you read any of these stories before? Or are they any that grabs your attention? Do share!

Stephanie

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot

First published January 1, 1972 / Then Published      April 15, 1998 by St. Martin’s Paperbacks

Delve into the magical, unforgettable world of James Herriot, the world’s most beloved veterinarian, and his menagerie of heartwarming, funny, and tragic animal patients.

For over forty years, generations of readers have thrilled to Herriot’s marvelous tales, deep love of life, and extraordinary storytelling abilities. For decades, Herriot roamed the remote, beautiful Yorkshire Dales, treating every patient that came his way from smallest to largest, and observing animals and humans alike with his keen, loving eye.

In All Creatures Great and Small, we meet the young Herriot as he takes up his calling and discovers that the realities of veterinary practice in rural Yorkshire are very different from the sterile setting of veterinary school. Some visits are heart-wrenchingly difficult, such as one to an old man in the village whose very ill dog is his only friend and companion, some are lighthearted and fun, such as Herriot’s periodic visits to the overfed and pampered Pekinese Tricki Woo who throws parties and has his own stationery, and yet others are inspirational and enlightening, such as Herriot’s recollections of poor farmers who will scrape their meager earnings together to be able to get proper care for their working animals. From seeing to his patients in the depths of winter on the remotest homesteads to dealing with uncooperative owners and critically ill animals, Herriot discovers the wondrous variety and never-ending challenges of veterinary practice as his humor, compassion, and love of the animal world shine forth.Foster

Foster by Claire Keegan

Published August 18, 2022 by Faber & Faber

It is a hot summer in rural Ireland. A child is taken by her father to live with relatives on a farm, not knowing when or if she will be brought home again. In the Kinsellas’ house, she finds an affection and warmth she has not known and slowly, in their care, begins to blossom. But there is something unspoken in this new household – where everything is so well tended to – and the summer must come to an end.

Adapted into the Oscar-nominated film adaptation, An Cailín Ciúin / The Quiet Girl

From the author of the Booker-shortlisted Small Things Like These, a heartbreaking, haunting story of childhood, loss and love by one of Ireland’s most acclaimed writers.

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Published October 3, 2025 by Simon & Schuster

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

His name is Theo. And he asks a lot more questions than he answers.

Theo visits the local coffeehouse, where ninety-two pencil portraits hang on the walls, portraits of the people of Golden done by a local artist. He begins purchasing them, one at a time, and putting them back in the hands of their “rightful owners.” With each exchange, a story is told, a friendship born, and a life altered.

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Published June 16, 1990 by Vintage

Willa Cather’s best-known novel is an epic–almost mythic–story of a single human life lived simply in the silence of the southwestern desert. In 1851 Father Jean Marie Latour comes to serve as the Apostolic Vicar to New Mexico. What he finds is a vast territory of red hills and tortuous arroyos, American by law but Mexican and Indian in custom and belief. In the almost forty years that follow, Latour spreads his faith in the only way he knows–gently, all the while contending with an unforgiving landscape, derelict and sometimes openly rebellious priests, and his own loneliness. Out of these events, Cather gives us an indelible vision of life unfolding in a place where time itself seems suspended.

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

Published August 30, 2001 by Counterpoint

“This is a book about Heaven,” says Jayber Crow, “but I must say too that . . . I have wondered sometimes if it would not finally turn out to be a book about Hell.” It is 1932 and he has returned to his native Port William to become the town’s barber. Orphaned at age ten, Jayber Crow’s acquaintance with loneliness and want have made him a patient observer of the human animal, in both its goodness and frailty. He began his search as a “pre-ministerial student” at Pigeonville College. There, freedom met with new burdens and a young man needed more than a mirror to find himself. But the beginning of that finding was a short conversation with “Old Grit,” his profound professor of New Testament Greek.

“You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out―perhaps a little at a time.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

“I don’t know. As long as you live, perhaps.”

“That could be a long time.”

“I will tell you a further mystery,” he said. “It may take longer.” Wendell Berry’s clear-sighted depiction of humanity’s gifts―love and loss, joy and despair―is seen though his intimate knowledge of the Port William Membership.

Reader’s Log 014: Favorite Books?

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I love hearing people talk about which books are their favorites. For me, when someone ask what my favorite books are, is a very difficult question for me because I have so many categories! That said, I always begin with the classics. Hands down, if I were only to choose one book it would always be the Holy Bible. Its funny, there are moments when I’ve been out and about and either a random person or an employee of a store, would ask me what my favorite books are. I think depending where my head is at the moment, oftentimes I get stuck with the question. Strange how that works. Thinking back about my blogging, I believe-if I remember correctly- I have avoided this topic perhaps for that reason. Or maybe because-in all seriousness-there are too many to name. Particularly if you’re an avid reader.

Where shall I begin in this post? Childhood reads? The classics like I always do? How about not planning which books and listing a bunch of classics off the top of my head as quick as I can? That would be fun to see what I can come up with. Let’s begin, shall we?

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Middle March by George Eliot

Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy  

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Portrait of a Lady Henry James

The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery

There are so many more…

These book titles are not in any particular order.

Have you read any of these books? Out of this list, which are your favorites? This may be a fun topic to explore further.

I highly recommend these books to all.

Stephanie

2023 Fiction Reads

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As I wrote this post, I reflected on how fast last year flew by and how 2023 was the year that I completely got over my fiction reading burn out. I contribute that to several factors but most of all to not setting any particular number of books to read. Instead, by being more intentional about absorbing what I’m reading at a slower pace. I wasn’t boggled down by pressures to gain any number of books read by the end of the year. I learned so much about myself and what drove me to burn out in the first place. That subject may come as a blog post at a later date.

There are a few books on my bookshelf that I visited again and new ones that were recommended to me and that were on my wish-list. I was quite surprise by how different my experience was by re-reading stories this time around. A few were favorable and others not so much. Jane Eyre of course is always like visiting an old friend and the visit brought me closer to the story than it has in quite a while. I credit that to absorbing Jane’s story at a slower pace. Her life’s journey is among my favorites since my first time meeting her in the early 1990’s. Not only that but of the spiritual lessons through its pages.

I didn’t read as many fictional books as I have in the past because I am deeply involved in Bible studies-such as theology and the early Christian church history and other history research.

I look forward to sharing more about my nonfiction reads and posting about my reading 2024 reading adventures this year soon.

Stephanie Hopkins

The Dust Needs to Settle

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We had quite the storm this past Saturday evening of heavy rain, strong wind and lightning. On the back screened porch Sunday morning, everything was damp and the southern humidity didn’t help matters. At least the birds were in song and the coffee was strong. I was sitting on the back porch, not sure how long that was going to last, to write letters, organize to-do lists and to jot down thoughts about, The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah. In the picture, you see John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, you say. “Where’s, The Four Winds?” I bought this copy of The Grapes of Wrath back in 92′ and yes, it’s still in great condition. Gosh, saying that makes me feel old.

To answer your question, assuming you’re asking it, I’m re-visiting The Grapes of Wrath because The Four Winds is a good companion and the stories are still relevant today. They both give you a fountain of information to think about and I have so much to say about both of them. The Four Winds is resting on one of my bookshelves. I will be un-shelving the book soon to gather some marked passages and discuss both books with its contrasts and similarities.

This will be a rather ongoing project and perhaps will share in bits and pieces at Layered Pages. Each post will be linked, so you many keep up with this project, if you wish.

Stephanie Hopkins

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Published April 10th 2014 by Viking (first published April 14th 1939)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers.

First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Published February 2nd 2021 by St. Martin’s Press

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.