About the Book List

Whenever I enter someone else’s home for the first time, I’m always looking for and am drawn to the bookshelves. I enjoy perusing people’s bookshelves or book lists to see if we have similar interests or to get ideas for new books to read. Someone once said you can learn a lot about a person by the books they read and I believe that to be true.

I’ve been keeping track of the books I read for a number of years. I may have skipped a few years in-between when the kids were younger or when my work was too hectic to keep up. Or maybe I just haven’t found the list for that year yet. But, I intentionally try to keep a list up to date, so lists from the most recent years will be more complete. I hope you enjoy browsing and maybe you can discover some new and interesting reads here.

2002

Two More Short Stories of The Port William Membership by Wendell Berry

A World Lost by Wendell Berry

Brighten The Corner Where You Are by Fred Chappell

Dead Man’s Walk by Larry McMurtry

The Holy Earth by Liberty Hyde Bailey

Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry

In One Place: The Natural History of A Georgia Farmer by Milton Hopkins

Wait ‘Til Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Remembering by Wendell Berry

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (2nd time)

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides

Wish You Well by David Baldacci

The Woods Stretched For Miles by John Lane, Gerald Thurmond (Eds)

Strength form The Hills by Jesse Stuart

The Greening of Georgia by R. Harold Brown

Colter by Rick Bass

Home to Harmony by Philip Gulley

2003

Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White

Home Economics by Wendell Berry

The Future of Life by E.O. Wilson

Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Littlejohn by Howard Owen

Billy Watson’s Croker Sack by Franklin Burroughs

Sin Killer by Larry McMurtry

The Davinci Code by Dan Brown

Wild Card Quilt by Janisse Ray

In the Presence of Fear by Wendell Berry

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Epitaph for a Peach by David Mas Masumoto

Becoming Native to This Place by Wes Jackson

Eugene Odum: Ecosystem Ecologist & Environmentalist by Betty Jean Craige

The Valley of Light by Terry Kay

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

For Everything A Season by Philip Gulley

The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren

2004

Deception Point by Dan Brown

Citizenship Papers by Wendell Berry

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (2nd time)

That Distant Land by Wendell Berry

The 5 People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Clay’s Quilt by Silas House

The Passing by Ferrol Sams

A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House

The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Daughter of My People by James Kilgo

The Coal Tattoo by Silas House

Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

2005

Collapse by Jared Diamond

Harvest by Catherine Landis

Next Door Savior by Max Lucado

One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash

Saints at the River by Ron Rash

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

A Native Hill by Wendell Berry

2006

A Book of Bees by Sue Hubbell

The Way of Ignorance by Wendell Berry

Liberty Hyde Bailey: An Informal Biography by Philip Dorf

Island of Saints by Andy Andrews

Night by Elie Wiesel

The End of Nature by Bill McKibben

Cash: The Autobiography by Johnny Cash

The World Made Straight by Ron Rash

Four Seasons in Five Senses by David Mas Masumoto

A Continuous Harmony by Wendell Berry

2011

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Cason Callaway of Blue Springs by Paul Shubert

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

The Garden of Invention by Jane Smith

The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne

Sundog by Jim Harrison

In Harm’s Way by Doug Stanton

My Antonia by Willa Cather

1491 by Charles C. Mann

Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick

A Voyage Long & Strange by David Horwitz

The Lives of Rocks by Rick Bass

2012

The Sky, The Stars, The Wilderness by Rick Bass

Aldo Leopold: His Life & Writings by Curt Meine

The Winemaker’s Daughter by Timothy Egan

1493 by Charles C. Mann

The Ferguson Rifle by Louis L’Amour

Same Sun Here by Silas House and Neela Vaswani

Calico Joe by John Grisham

The Old Man & The Sea by Ernest Hemingway (2nd reading)

The Cove by Ron Rash

The Fruit Hunters by Adam Leith Gollner

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

Pillar of Sand by Sandra Postel

American Canopy by Eric Rutkow

Under A Wild Sky by William Souder

This Land, This South: An Environmental History by Albert Cowdrey

A Place in Time by Wendell Berry

Rascal by Sterling North

Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s by Donald Worster

2013

On A Farther Shore: The Life & Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder

Wilderness by Lance Weller

Where The Bluebird Sings to The Lemonade Springs by Wallace Stegner

Nature As Measure by Wes Jackson

The Forest Unseen by David Haskell

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

House of Earth by Woodie Guthrie

Wicked River by Lee Sandlin

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle by Jane Leavy

Woodie Guthrie: A Life by Joe Klein

A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash

The Son by Philipp Meyer

American Rust by Philipp Meyer

The Sojourner by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Birmingham, 35 Miles by James Braziel

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Thief At The End Of The World by Joe Jackson

2014

A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell by Donald Worster

Longitude by David Sobel

Bruce by Peter Ames Carlin

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Empire of The Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

The Beekeeper’s Lament by Hannah Nordhaus

Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Walt Disney: American Original by Bob Thomas

The Story of Charlotte’s Web by Michael Sims

Summer of The Monkeys by Wilson Rawls

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool

Tuck everlasting by Natalie Babbit

Ship of Gold in The Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder

A Wrinkle in TIme by Madeline L’Engle

The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler

Good Poems for Hard Times by Garrison Keillor (ed.)

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Witch of Hebron by James Howard Kunstler

The Sweet Everlasting by Judson Mitcham

The Big Ratchet by Ruth DeFries

2015

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

A New Selected Poems by Galway Kinnell

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Good Poems, American Places by Garrison Keillor (ed.)

The Sea Wolf by Jack London

The Best American Science & Nature Writing by Deborah Blum (ed.)

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

The End of Plenty by Joel K. Bourne, Jr.

The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy

The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks

Long Man by Amy Greene

Darkness Sticks to Everything by Tom Hennen

Beyond the Outer Shores by Eric Enno Tamm

Please Be With Me: A Song For My Father, Duane Allman by Galadrielle Allman

A History of The Future by James Howard Kunstler

Flying At Night by Ted Kooser

2016

Of Mice & Men by John Steinbeck

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Gratitude by Oliver Sacks

We Almost Disappear by David Bottoms

Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser

Above The Waterfall by Ron Rash

Andy & Don by Daniel DeVise

The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboltd’s New World by Andrea Wulf

Fallen Land by Taylor Brown

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Montana, 1948 by Larry Watson

Let Us Now Praise Famous Gulleys by Paul Sutter

The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gahman

A Sudden Light by Garth Stein

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

The Harrows of Spring by James Howard Kunstler

This Day by Wendell Berry

Miss Jane by Brad Watson

Short Nights of The Shadowcatcher by Timothy Egan

Rambunctious Garden by Emma Marris

The Heaven of Mercury by Brad Watson

Poachers by Tom Franklin

The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

2017

Mockingbird Song: Ecological Landscapes of the South by Jack Temple Kirby

Rivers West by Louis L’Amour

News of The World by Paulette Jiles

The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

Our Only World by Wendell Berry

At The Edge of The Orchard by Tracey Chevalier

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

The Gulf by Jack Davis

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

The Home Place by J. Drew Lanham

Love, Africa by Jeffrey Gettleman

Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf

A Childhood: The Biography of A Place by Harry Crews

In His Own Image by Lewis Brown

River of Kings by Taylor Brown

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich

The Art of Loading Brush by Wendell Berry

2018

Leonardo DaVinci by Walter Isaacson

His First Best Country by Jim Wayne Miller

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong

Elmet by Fiona Mozley

Working Days: Journals of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig

The Which Way Tree by Elizabeth Crook

The Wizard & The Prophet by Charles C. Mann

Stoner by John Williams

The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone

Southernmost by Silas House

O’ Pioneers by Willa Cather

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Spencer’s Mountain by Earl Hamner

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee

Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry (2nd reading)

The Line That Held Us by David Joy

Tree Borne by Caleb Johnson

Farmer by Jim Harrison

The Shell Collector: Stories by Anthony Doerr

2019

Educated by Tara Westover

Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers

The Meadow by James Galvin

Lyla by Sean Dietrich

West by Carys Davies

Rivers by Michael Farris Smith

Music of The Swamp by Lewis Nordan

Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

The Man Called Cash by Steve Turner

Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown

American Primitive by Mary Oliver

Native Species by Todd Davis

Atticus Finch: The Biography by Joseph Crespino

Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams

Stars of Alabama by Sean Dietrich

The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton

The River by Peter Heller

Whistling Dixie by Sean Dietrich

The Dreamt Land by Mark Arax

Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl

11/22/63 by Stephen King

To Tame A Land by Louis L’Amour

Father & Son by Larry Brown

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Ron Rash

Billy Ray’s Farm by Larry Brown

2020

Upstream by Mary Oliver

The Beekeeper of Allepo by Christy Lefteri

A River Runs Through It & Other Stories by Norman Maclean

One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle

The Risen by Ron Rash

A Man Without A Country by Kurt Vonnegut

The Excellent Lombards by Jane Hamilton

Will The Circle Be Unbroken by Sean Dietrich

Great Plains by Ian Frazier

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

The Hidden Wound by Wendell Berry

Eventide by Kent Haruf

The Rediscovery of North America by Barry Lopez

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

Reading in Bed by Brian Doyle

Imagination in Place by Wendell Berry

Lost Continent by Bill Bryson

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

The Bear by Andrew Krivak

Another Turn of The Crank by Wendell Berry

The Same River Twice by Chris Offut

Burning Bright by Ron Rash

When These Mountains Burn by David Joy

English Pastoral by James Rebanks

Elevation by Stephen King

‘Tis by Frank McCourt

The Hermit’s Story by Rick Bass

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (read countless times)

2021

The Meaning of It All by Richard Feynman

What Unites Us by Dan Rather

Snapper by Brian Kimberling

Mad at The World: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder

The Good Ancestor by Roman Krenaric

Leopold’s Shack & Rickett’s Lab by Michael Lannoo

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

At Home by Bill Bryson

Blood Meridian by Cormac Macarthy

Querencia by Stephen Bodio

The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich

Life’s Edge: What It Means to Be Alive by Carl Zimmer

The Wax Pack by Brad Balukjian

Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks

A Hole In The Sky by William Kittredge

The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah

Farm and Other F-Words by Sarah K. Mock

About This Life by Barry Lopez

Home Waters by John Maclean

Celine by Peter Heller

On Writing by Stephen King

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

Whole Earth Discipline by Stewart Brand

Encounters With The Arch-Druid by John McPhee

An Accidental Life by Terry McDonnell

The Jubilee by John Blase

Fishing Through The Apocalypse by Matt Miller

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Bad Land by Jonathan Raban

American Buffalo by Steven Rinella

The Walk by William DeBuys

Travels With George by Nathaniel Philbrick

A Thousand Mile Walk to The Gulf by John Muir

Where The Deer and The Antelope Play by Nick Offerman

Driftless by David Rhodes

2022

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

The Traveling Feast by Rick Bass

Graceland At Last by Margaret Renkl

The Everlasting Stream by Walt Harrington

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson

A Dresser of Sycamore Trees by Garret Keizer

Braided Creek by Ted Koozer and Jim Harrison

Walking It Off by Doug Peacock

The End of The End of The Earth by Jonathan Franzen

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Finding The Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

Rock Island Line by David Rhodes

Walter Benjamin at The Dairy Queen by Larry McMurtry

Children and Other Animals by Brian Doyle

Oranges by John McPhee

False Spring by Pat Jordan

Riverman by Ben McGrath

Untamed by Will Harland

The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert

Eight Whopping Lies by Brian Doyle

A Clearing in The Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century by Witold Rybczynski

The Painter by Peter Heller

The World Pushes Back by Garret Keizer

Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner

The River Swimmer by Jim Harrison

No Heroes by Chris Offutt

This America of Ours: Bernard and Avis DeVoto and the Forgotten Fight to Save the Wild by Nate Schwerber

West of Wanting by Jared Reinert

The Earth is Enough by Harry Middleton

Off To The Side by Jim Harrison

Shalako by Louis L’Amour

You Are My Sunshine by Sean Dietrich

Kindest Regards: New & Selected Poems by Ted Kooser

The Woods of Fannin County by Janisse Ray

The Need to Be Whole by Wendell Berry

A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines

Let Me Finish by Roger Angell

How it Went by Wendell Berry

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley

The Medusa and The Snail by Lewis Thomas

The Jaguar’s Children by John Vaillant

2023

Sleepaway by T.R. Pearson

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