by Laura Ingalls Wilder
I was 8 when I read this book and fantasized about living in the big woods. Now I finally do.
Guinness Book of World Records
At 12 I read my first copy from cover to cover, and I still remember the photograph of the longest fingernails. I was and still am fascinated by human feats and accomplishments and have great respect for people who can achieve incredible goals. From where do they get the drive?
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Quotes from this book:
"There is no shortage of good days. It is good lives that are hard to come by."
"I would like to learn, or remember, how to live. I come to Hollins Pond not so much to learn how to live as, frankly, to forget about it. That is, I don't think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular...but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive. "
"The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart."
"Spend the afternoon, you can't take it with you."
Death, The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
In college I took a Psychology class on Death & Dying, and we studied this book. I have gone back to this book many times during my life for help in dealing with death.
Perfect Daughters by Robert Ackerman
Difficult to read but very helpful.