Sixteen Books That Changed My Life

Facebook friends have been posting lists of favorite books recently.

I love reading the lists
and have found great leads for the coming months,
but I am curious--  
Why did they choose that particular book?
Here is my list
with why
in the order I discovered them:

The Big Wave by Pearl Buck, fourth grade.
This story of a tsunami in Japan
taught me that the world was much larger than my experiences,
that horrible things can happen,
and that there is life on the other side of tragedy.

C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
was given to me by Mrs. Richards,
my Pioneer Girl prayer partner,
when I was in fifth grade
and was the first book to show me
that a story could be deeper
than the basic plot would indicate.
During my first semester at Houghton
I was amazed to find out
that there were six more Narnia books...
not much studying was done the rest of that week.

Peanuts by Charles Schulz
was important in junior high
when I spent hours drawing Snoopy and his friends.
I became aware
that some pictures
ARE worth a thousand words;
one dancing dog portrayed the essence of joy.

As a teenager,
reading Katherine Woods' translation of
Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince
simplified the essentials of life.
Years earlier,
Uncle Dick had written in my autograph book.
(Remember autograph books?
RMA.
AFA.
In those days,
the acronyms were simple.)
Dick quoted the Little Fox:
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.
What is essential is invisible to the eye."
Thanks, Uncle Dick.

Palmer's Fieldbook of Natural History
told me interesting stories
about what I saw around me each day:
Teasel used to be mounted on belts in woolen mills.
Staghorn sumac wood needs no varnish,
and twigs with the pith removed
can be used as maple sugaring spiles.
Male monarch butterflies have black scent glands
visible on the hindwings.
House flies throw up before they eat.
Great horned owls hoot at middle C.
Grasshoppers prevent diarrhea in red bats.
Dandelion pollen is sterile.
Porcupines are useful
to people lost in forests
because they can be killed easily
and the flesh is good to eat.
A robin's Latin name
is Turdus migratorius.
Really.
I checked Palmer's book out of Houghton's library
so often
that Den bought me my own copy.
It was one of the best gifts I have ever received.

My roommate Holly
introduced me to Milne's Winnie the Pooh
when we  were both in the children's play;
she was Uncle Rabbit,
I was Roo.
Dan Woolsey brought Pooh to life.
It was my first experience as an actor,
but not my last.

My grandma Maud raised me on Bible stories,
but at Houghton,
I was to read the whole Bible.
The ancient book of Job
in the Old Testament
had it all:
affluence,
poverty,
tragedy,
hopelessness
and hope,
poetry,
and mystery.
Job 38 through 41 continues to remind me
"Who do you think you are?"
Where were you when I laid he foundations of the earth?
...Who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together 
   and all the angels shouted for joy?
...Where does the light come from and where does the darkness go?
...Who is the mother of the ice?
...Are you able to restrain the Pleiades?
...Are you the one who makes the hawk soar?
Then Job replied, 
"I am nothing-- 
how could I ever find the answers? 
I place my hand over my mouth.
Daily
I bow to the Mystery
and place my hand over my mouth.

In my twenties,
Michener's Centennial
and Haley's Roots
gave me the stories that drew me into the history.
Over the years
Michener's fiction
drew me into non-fiction
and gave me stories of the places we would visit:
Colorado.
The Chesapeake.
Alaska.
Israel.

Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki
started me
on stand-alone non-fiction.
I have bought his books at used book sales
only to find my name in them.
I should stop donating.

L'Engle's Many Waters
postulated background to Noah's flood
and changed the way I imagined Biblical characters.
I once heard Madeleine L'Engle speak
at the Carnegie Library
and when she had finished
I asked her no questions.
Instead, I sat behind her
and listened to her answer everyone else's questions.
Fascinating.

Comparing Joe Slate's wonderful story
How Little Porcupine Saved Christmas
to its ho-hum later edition
Little Porcupine's Christmas
showed me how a good story
can be ruined
by wrong word choice.
I wrote to Joe
and asked him why the changes were made,
which led to a semi-friendship
but that is a story for another time.

Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes
warmed my mother heart
(Calvin lived in Luke),
amused my first grade teacher heart
(Miss Wormwood is me without coffee),
and mushed up my creative heart
(some stuffed animals
seem to have more personality
than some people I've met).

In my forties,
reading Catherine Marshall's Christy
led me to read The Prayers of Peter Marshall,
who was the chaplain to the US senate in the 40s.
He wrote in lined thoughts
rather than paragraphs
and I have followed his lead.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

The Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers
was written by the Maria
and tells the now-famous story
of The Sound of Music.
What you see in the movie
is only the first third of the book;
her story continues
and is overflowing with faith
and love
and service
both in Austria and in the US.
There is usually more to the story than what we know.

What's So Amazing About Grace?
(and pretty much any book by Philip Yancey)
affirms my questioning nature.
Thinking and Christianity
sometimes are not neighbors;
Yancey puts them together well.

Steve Saint's The End of the Spear
challenged my first-world way of looking at life.
Steve is the son of Nate Saint,
and was raised in Ecuador
among the Auca/Waodani tribe who killed his father.
His book showed me courageous love
as well as a view of first-world America
through a hunter-gatherer's eyes.
It reminded me
that good can come from bad,
and that we often see life
as through a window well-smudged with dirt.

My fifties?
Nothing yet comes to mind.
I look forward to reading your suggestions
but please tell me...
why?

Sue

PS. Some of Den's favorites?
The Bible
The Poems of Robert Frost
Trails of a Wilderness Wanderer, Russell
The Lion. the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lewis
Mere Christianity, Lewis
The Hobbit, Tolkein
The Little Prince, Saint Exupery
A Day No Pigs Would Die, Peck
Where the Red Fern Grows, Rawls
The Education of Little Tree, Carter
I Will Fight No More Forever, Chief Joseph
I Heard the Owl Call My Name, Craven
Landscape Turned Red, Sears
Coming Into the Country, McPhee
Boy's Life, McCammon
Wilderness Empire, Eckert
A River Runs Through It, Maclean
Your God Is Too Small, Phillips
Earthsea Trilogy, LeGuin
Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, Sider