Top Ten Tuesday – Books That Provide a Much Needed Escape

On By Erin @ Cracker Crumb LifeIn Uncategorized

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s prompt is Books that Provide a Much Needed Escape. At first I wanted to interpret this as just comfort reads, then I realized that sometimes I need different escapes; sometimes I need the warm hug of a familiar, much loved book, sometimes I need an all-consuming thriller, and sometimes I need the solace of a nonfiction nature read.

Let me start with my comfort books. These are beloved books to me, that I have read over and over for one reason or another. Watership Down is my all time favorite book, the Little House series is just one that I have read almost every since I was a child. At Home in Mitford is just such a feel good book, full of good people, and Barbara Michaels – I don’t know what it is about her books but I have read them so much that my copies are literally falling apart.

The thrillers section. This part is more about the author and less about the book. These authors can just write books that completely engross me! And lucky me, I still have so many to read still from their backlist!

And finally, those nonfiction nature reads. I haven’t reached for one in a while, and while researching this post I realized I miss them. I feel like this winter I may be cuddling up with a few that I haven’t read yet.

John Lewis-Stempel is one of my favorites. I have read Meadowland quite a few times, and once I spent a month reading it out loud to Billy and Wyatt after dinner. (Wyatt wasn’t as excited about this as we were) The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating – this is probably one of my most recommended books, I tell everyone to read it. It is very scientific and you will learn a lot about snails, but I also felt there was something so peaceful to be found in its pages. World of Wonders spoke to my heart. I too believe our world is full of wonders and we need to approach them all with that childlike joy we used to. Finally, Braiding Sweetgrass was just such a journey with Kimmerer. Her words and writings are so gorgeous, and I love that she reads her own books for audio. I have read this and listened to it both, and I love the audio just a bit more.

And that is it for me this week! I can’t wait to see everyone else’s choices!

40 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday – Books That Provide a Much Needed Escape”

  1. lydiaschoch's avatar lydiaschoch

    This is such a great list. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating may have to go on my TBR. 🙂

    Have you ever read Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser? It’s about the parts of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life that didn’t make it into the Little House books. Such a good read.

    Here is my Top Ten Tuesday.

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  8. Many are so fond of the Mitford novels and I cannot remember if I’ve read the Little House books. I should, even if I did, read one or two again just because. 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting my website today.

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    1. I love Watership Down – I read it every year without fail, and sometimes when I just need a little extra comfort or even courage, I read it. Kimmerer has a new book coming out, did you see? About serviceberries! I am excited! World of Wonders was really good, and an easy little read.

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    1. Lol! Thanks!! That snail book is excellent. It was a book of great solace to me at a really hard time in my life. And we love snails here. Wyatt is obsessed! We now have…5 pet snails? 2 yellow mystery snails. two blue mystery snails, and one garden snail. My kid, I tell you. Lol.

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  17. Annette's avatar Annette

    I just ordered The Secret Life of the Owl by John Lewis-Stempel. I ordered the book from Thriftbooks. I plan to keep my eye out for Meadowland. I wish it was on Audible.

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  19. Great list – you’re so right. Sometimes I want a comfort read, other times a fast-paced escape. I read Braiding Sweetgrass finally, and it was fantastic! I also loved the Little House books as a kid. I wonder where that box set wandered off to, I can’t help but ask myself if they’d be as enjoyable to me now as they were back then.

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    1. I think for me, the Little House books are a comfort is because they are nostalgic, and also because they have some really crappy things happen to them and they just make it through to the other side. I know in reality the Ingalls family was not quite the way they are represented in fiction, but when I need an escape, I can pretend that they were that way.

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