Knit to This
Knit to This: 4 Things to Check Out
Look, I try to keep fresh and modern when I come up with these things for you—my past Ella Fitzgerald recommendation notwithstanding—and sometimes that means I have more things to tell you about than there are Knit to This opportunities in the year. Especially when you factor in that Ann and Kay get some of these slots, and while I really have no idea what they go on about on their days, I feel certain they’re not going to recommend the same things I would have. Except for all the times they did, I guess.
Anyway! I just looked at my ongoing notes and ideas file and here are some things I loved this year for which I didn’t have time to flesh out full Knit to Thises. It’s not really a Best Of list (I think those are kind of dumb and reductive) but it’s definitely a You Should Check Them Out list.
Movie: Past Lives
The movie I was the most fervent about all year—and the one I kept telling people to go see—is Past Lives. Then I noticed that almost everyone was yammering about it, so I felt like I didn’t need to signal boost it here. But it’s a beauty: tender and small and devastating, with an absolutely heartstopping final five minutes or so. “Heartstopping” in the good way, not in the “you might die” way. Also, an aside: go see movies in movie theaters. Even the worst movie-theater-movie is better than a streaming-in-your-living-room one. Don’t @ me, I ain’t having it.
Book: North Woods
The book I think everyone should read is North Woods by Daniel Mason. It’s a little hard to describe, other than to say that the main character is a house in western Massachusetts and the whole book is made up of a parade of characters who pass in and out of it—from its colonial origins right up until just about now. A set of spinster sisters, an apple hybridist, a medium, a tabloid reporter, an escaped slave … each with a different relationship with the house itself. It’s gorgeous and somehow distinctly American. There’s an audiobook version, but this one should be read the old-school way; there are little visual scraps of things that deepen the whole experience.
Song: “It Must Change”
The song I loved the most this year is “It Must Change” from Anhoni’s My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, which feels like a fresh kind of protest song and it’s definitely the vocal of the year.
Podcast: Obscure
And one more: I have talked about the podcast Obscure before, but this year’s installment is fantastic. Michael Ian Black reads Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy out loud with—since it’s basically the premise of the podcast—tangents aplenty. Episode One begins with a five-minute tirade about the lack of efficacy of British washer/dryer combos before Black even announces the title of the book. Theodore Dreiser is woefully out of fashion these days, but not for Black’s lack of trying. Never has Dreiser been so funny. Seriously, never.
Alright now. You have your assignments. Reports due on Friday.
A Giveaway!
To one reader, a copy of Ann’s novel Bowling Avenue, which is no North Woods, mind you, but it is a tale of a house.
How to enter?
Two steps:
Step 1: Sign up for MDK emails, right here. External Link. Opens in new window.. If you’re already signed up, you’re all set. We have a new option for texting, so when you sign up for those, you’ll get a coupon code good for 10% off your next MDK order.
Step 2: What’s your favorite novel that involves a house in a significant way? Leave a comment, and try not to read anybody else’s comment before deciding, so as to avoid having a hundred people say “the dugout house from On the Banks of Plum Creek” or whatever.
Deadline for entries: Sunday, December 17, 11:59 PM Central. We’ll draw a random winner from the entries. Winner will be notified by email.
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“The Dutch House” by Ann Patchett
Loved this one!
At Home, by Bill Bryson. Just so fascinating, educational and will Bill Bryson….funny!
The View from the Very Best House in Town by Meera Trehan
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. It’s not one actual house, but a story in which the houses of the rich and once-rich and not rich play an outsized role. It’s a devastating book whose message far outlives the time in which it was set.
Thank you. I read this book many years ago and it has stayed with me. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately for some reason.
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver with its residents and their own stories a century apart.
The Fall of the House of Usher!!
The first thought I had was Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House. Then I thought of Poe’s short story The Fall of the House of Usher, which is surely one of the creepiest, most atmospheric stories ever written. I read it as a kid and had nightmares of being buried alive a la Madeline. It’s been decades, and I can still recall reading the story.
The Dutch House. Such a hoot book by ann Patchett. I honestly thought of it before I open this and saw someone else had already posted it!
Little, Big, by John Crowley. The house is multifaceted, mysterious, indefinite, and magical, like the book, which is wondrous. We witness a family expand as generations give way to the next. They exist in a time and place somewhat slant from the factual, but so recognizably loving, messy, and human.
“The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod”, Henry Beston
A solid vote for the audio version of The Dutch House, read by Tom Hanks!
Gone With The Wind comes to mind because of Tara
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Well, I did read the other comments and would have put forth The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, but several others got there first. I also think that Fortune’s Rock by Anita Shreve features a house with a story of it’s own.
How To Sell A Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
I LOVE Grady Hendrix! I’m going to go put this title on my kindle asap!
Wuthering Heights.
“The Paying Guests” by Sarah Waters
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier is a classic gothic novel featuring the Manderley estate as an imposing character.
This is NOT a novel. It is a children’s picture book that I read to my children and plan on reading to my grandchildren. It was written WAY ahead of its time. Everyone should read it.
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
I almost put this one down, love, love it.
Oh, my gosh! Thank you for reminding me of this book. I haven’t thought about in years, such a great one.
I have to be honest, I read a lot, but can never remember authors or titles. However, I do love books about houses and I am making notes from the comments here!
We Have Always Lived In The Castle. Ms Jackson will keep you up at night and not in a drinking, laughing, gay old time way. Nope nope nope.
Second!
Discovery of Witches. The house was my favorite character!
I loved those books!
Wuthering Heights
The Painted House by John Grisham
The only one I’ve “read” (listened to on Audible, really) is Bowling Avenue. I’ve been hoping that Ann writes another book since.
The Outermost House: A year of life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod by Henry Beston It’s more a story of the place than the house but the house makes it all possible.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
The cave the Hawk makes into a home in Hernan Diaz’ novel In The Distsnce.
https://www.latinobookreview.com/hernan-diaz—in-the-distance–latino-book-review.html
Fellowship Point, by Alice Elliott Dark
A wordy lengthy story which I found engrossing. Loved it.
Mrs PiggleWiggle – the upside down house!
Oh I haven’t thought of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle in years! Loved her – and her upside down house.
LOL! Used to read this to my second graders, they loved it, too.
Rebecca! Manderley is definitely one of the main characters.
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver. It’s about much more than the house.
Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall- the most beautiful illustrations by one of my favorite children’s book author/illustrator’s. It’s the story of an old farmhouse and the family who inhabited it.
Yes! So evocative.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, and I did read the comments after I wrote it down!
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman. Multiple generations who live in same New England house. Loved it!
Can’t wait to see Past Lives and read North Woods. Thank you DG for your recommendations!
House by Tracy Kidder
Perhaps The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It’s like a modern-day Jane Eyre, which I also love. Both stories have such strong senses of place and the secrets the houses are hiding are key to the plot.
The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The house in Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen’s. It was her refuge.
Loved this!
Patty’s Place, the house Anne Shirley (of Anne of Green Gables) rents with three friends during her college days in the book Anne of the Island. The china dogs, Gog and Magog, that Anne later inherits from the home’s owner are a favorite memory from that book.
House by Tracy Kidder
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
John Grisham’s A PAINTED HOUSE…loved that book. And I read it and gave it to my then teenage son and he read it and loved it as well. It was his “go-to” book for years…he would pick it up and soend a day or two reading in his room when he needed down time.
reading The Dutch House for the book club I’m in right now…
The Dutch House
I just always love the Knit to Thises!! Thank you!
The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende
Bill Nighy and Daniel Mason and Theodore Dreiser in one post!
Be still my heart.
(Mason is a great writer, and I’d watch Bill Nighy in anything).
Edith Wharton – Mrs. Mingott’s house up by the ‘new park,’ ‘Age of Innocence.’ I think of that when I am on the UES by the remnants of those gilded age mansions on Fifth. And Julian Fellowes is no Wharton.
Shout out to Age of Innocence! I was wavering between that and The House of Mirth. I went with “Mirth” but agree that the houses in Age of Innocence were central characters as well
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Captivating!
Yes! Bel Canto is so good. I remember seeing a lot of people reading it on the NYC subway at one point, which is why I failed to even to glance at till years later. (Natural contrarian.) However, when I finally read it, I learned how right all those people on the subway were. I could have kicked myself. It one of those books I was heartbroken to have leave when it was over and immediately read again.
House, by Tracy Kidder. May be out of print.
Oh my gosh, I remember Anne Rivers Siddons’ The House Next Door was exceptionally and memorably frightening!
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
Michael Pollen’s A Place of My Own. He wrote this before he wrote Omnivore’s Dilemma and became super famous. It is the saga of a not-at-all-handy NY Jew building a place of his own but is also a meditation on our relationship to place which draws on really wonderful sources. Just trust me and read this one. It is one of my favorite books even including all the other books in the world that have nothing to do with houses.
Loved that book – Thanks for reminding me!
I also put in a library request for North Woods. It will be a while. There is a rather long list of people ahead of me waiting for one of the six copies. I imagine this makes DG’s heart glad as he is not the only fan!
Me too!
The Women of Brewster Place
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson. It’s not quite about a house, but the house is a wonderful part of it. Such a good book. I cannot recommend it enough!
Housekeeping is an alltime top ten book for me. I like all of her later work too, but she’s never really topped it. One of my greatest book finds was a perfect, pristine first of it at a fairgrounds bulk book sale.
It’s also my favorite, much as I love her others.
I don’t think this is a book, but the first ‘house’ I thought of was ‘House of Blue Leaves’ – a play I was part of 50 years ago.
I’m not sure if it really qualifies, but my favourite book with a house (2 houses actually, a MOVIE house, aka cinema or theatre, and a house house, aka home or domicile) is “Ragged People” by Richard Wagamese (Canadian Content!!). Both houses feature prominently in the plot since so much of it is centered within them, but neither would be nominated for more than a supporting role Oscar. If you don’t know the book, it is a tale of a collection of street people, unhoused folks, who come together as a small community, a chosen family if you will, who share a love of movies (it started as a socially acceptable way to get out of the cold for a short time). They win a lottery and the story follows as their lives unfold from there. If you do not know Richard Wagamese, he is/was an Indigenous Canadian award winning author who also wrote “Indian Horse” which was made into a movie by Clint Eastwood, Exec Prod, in 2017. “Indian Horse” is a very good book that won many awards. “Ragged People” is, I believe, Richard’s BEST novel. Sadly, Richard passed away in 2017 before the film of “Indian Horse” was completed/released.
OK. So it’s not exactly a novel but The Three Little Pigs…come on. It is so much fun reading that to a little.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett jumps to mind. The audible version read by Tom Hanks is equally good.
The Lake House, Kate Morton
The Forgotten Garden, also by Kate Morton. I love all her books that I’ve read so far.
The Big House by George Howe Colt. Loved North Woods!
The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
Rebecca
The books I read are instructions for how to do something. I like to make things and that is how I spend my “spare” time.
A House for Ten
A book from my childhood I think I have my copy stashed away.
Memories of multiple reads .
Still Life by Louise Penny
House by Tracy Kidder. All about the building and making of a house. Including how hard it is to design and build stairs. I loved it!
“The Thorn Birds” by Colleen McCullough
It’s been a while since I read the series, but the Mayfair Witches series, by Anne Rice. When I think about those books, the first thing I always think about is the house.
Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews. A young witch is an innkeeper and the inn is an extraordinary house that is never what is seems!
Enjoyed this too!
Jane Eyre
“The House I Loved” by Tatiana de Rosnay
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. I loved the Masterpiece Theatre series, and then read the book. It’s brilliant!
Well actually, my first thought was Little House in the Big Woods, but then I saw the disclaimer so….The Dutch House
Wuthering Heights
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. There is another one I like that is similar to North Woods, but I can’t remember the name and am too lazy to get up from my knitting to go look.
The Big House by George Howe Colt. At one time I was often a visitor to a house very much like the house he wrote about.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
It would be too easy to say The Dutch House, which I very much enjoyed, but I’d have to agree with The Thorn Birds, which I read straight through in eight hours.
The Beach House by Mary Alice Monroe .
Oldie but Goodie
Rebecca / Daphne Dumaurier
Don’t be mad, DG, but the house in Bowling Avenue. (I don’t know why you would be mad).
Just seizing the opportunity to mention this book. I enjoyed it so much. Oh! I know what I could say, it has hygge.
My recommendation is the Dutch House by ann patcher. Great book
Not sure if this qualifies but the Overlook in Stephen King’s, The Shining.
I’m thinking of my favorite novel, “Rebecca.” Creepy mansion, creepy housekeeper, beautiful young woman who will remain nameless, what’s not to love!
The Five Star Weekend by Elin Hilderbrand
Dutch House -Ann Patchett
The Dutch House by Ann Patchette
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. I loved listening to that book.
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”– Rebecca by DuMaurier.
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Bella Waits by Marlys Milhiser is the story of a house haunted by a woman who died in childbirth and the house’s obsession with someone. I actually liked all her books, unusual for me with those types of books.
Nella, not Bella!
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. It was nominated for a Pulitzer so I’m not the only one who loved it!
Homecoming by Kate Morton
I feel like any of Kate Morton’s books would qualify.
Mr. Blanding builds his dream house, the book and the movie. It’s all about the house…
Jane Eyre. Thornfield is definitely a character, full of other characters.
97 Orchard : An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman
from the back cover:
…explores the culinary life that was the heart and soul of New York’s Lower East Side around the turn of the twentieth century—a city within a city, where Germans, Irish, Italians, and Eastern European Jews attempted to forge a new life….the experiences of five families, all of them residents of 97 Orchard Street
I can’t confine it to one: _The Hobbit_ plus the three books of _The Lord of the Rings_. All four have multiple significant houses. Each different, each important.
The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride revolves around a house which has a store on the ground floor. Excellent read.
The only book about a house that I recall is The Dutch house, which, by the way I learned of through a previous Knit to This article. It was read by Tom Hanks and very enjoyable to listen to while knitting. I look forward to North Woods, but this one I will read as recommended. Now on to reading the comments.
Little Women. Life centered around their house.
Tom Sawyer – he lived in the world and eschewed having 4 walls around him whenever possible.
“A Painted House”
Fellowship Point
Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. There would be no story without the house and it has the last laugh.
Seven Gables?
I’ll think of a better one after posting thus, of course.
Rebecca was a surprisingly lovely read all those years ago.
The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home. As much about the family and the place as it is about the house.
So I responded with The Dutch House and then saw so many who did the same. As I am knitting away another popped into my head and I was surprised I didn’t think of it sooner. Though it’s not a house, I have fond memories of reading about Tara in Gone With the Wind. One of my favorites.
It’s got to be the whole Anne of Green Gables series. While the first book is called Anne of Green Gables, the whole series harkens back to Green Gables and the time she lived there. One of my favourite series that I enjoy reading again and again.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. (The 1st movie adaptation is somewhat decent, the other movie versions are abysmal.) The book is the best, lengthy, not a fast novel, but oh my goodness Shirley Jackson’s Hill House is something.
Tara- of course. Although I personally thought Twelve Oaks more interesting-
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (a wonderful novel)
The Outermost House. I love Cape Cod and this book captures it – tides, dunes, seabirds. NorthWoods is a wonderful book. Do read it if you haven’t!
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
No peeking at the other comments?! Dang! The first thing that comes to mind is Flowers In The Attic. I’m going to read the comments now.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
Of course, The Dutch House by Anne Patchett which everyone loves. Also, while not really a “house” but a dwelling so maybe it counts (?) The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel (or anything she has written)
In trilogy A discovery of Witches the Bishop House is an important character. I recently listened to the audio version having read the series several years ago. Excellent and thoroughly enjoyable.
Dutch house of course.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I love this book so much I read it again most years. Godsend Castle is a burden, a sanctuary, an opportunity and a home.
I suspect many people will suggest The Dutch House. Like any Ann Patchett novel it was beautifully crafted but I did not enjoy it as much as most of her other works. I really loved North Woods. Best book I’ve read in a long time.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett is a corker!
The Dutch House
I’m currently reading The Round House by Louise Erdrich. Very powerful coming of age story involving Native Americans.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith is a very charming novel about an English family who moves into a crumbling castle and tries to make it livable, as well as all their family drama along the way
LOVED that one. Wish she’d written more. Do you know she wrote ? thought of? 101 Dalmatians? Innnnnteresting.
The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper
I just finished Alix E. Harrow’s Starling House: take a small town, mix in some dark legends, a few monsters, a pinch of the occult, and one very interesting big old house, and you’ve got a really good story.
John Crowley’s “Little, Big”. Edgewood is definitely the coolest house in any book I’ve ever read.
Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn by Hannah Holmes.
I always have to bookmark these to come back to the comments! I can think of several, my two top picks would be Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher and The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. I love books that bring history to life.
I vote for Blackbird House, by Alice Hoffman!
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan, which is about three generations of an upper middle class Palestinian family and the houses (and lives) they left behind as they move about to other cities and countries through the years fleeing war in Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon. The houses they have lived in and those their grandparents lived in, but they have never seen feature prominently as they work out who they are as Palestinians who have never lived there.
A Swiss Family Robinson — a house in a tree!
10,000 Doors of January by Alix Harrow is a really good book about a house (or parts of a house?) and then I just read The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone, which while it will not rise to my top 10 of all time, was pretty good and engaging, and then I must also reference The Narrowboat Summer by Ann Youngson, which involves narrow boats, not houses, but is really, really good. Gosh, now that I’m thinking about it – I feel like houses/places figure into my love of various books quite prominently. They’re really their own character sometimes, aren’t they?!
Roxane van Iperen’s “The Sisters of Auschwitz”, a Dutch novel about two Jewish sisters. Roxane is a lawyer, who moved into a house in the woods, called “The high Nest”. She wrote about the history of her home and got fascinated by two sisters who lived there during WW2. It is a very, very moving story.
I LOVE Bowling Avenue! I listen to it every two years or so on audio! And I also loved Past Lives, and saw it in our teeny tiny local movie theater in Bucksport, Maine. I was gobsmacked! On the basis of the fact that I’ve seen North Woods recommended twice today, I think I’ll get a copy for my husband for Christmas. He’s an unpredictable reader, but if he doesn’t like it, I’ll read it myself!
Ok, its not a novel. But James and the Giant Peach is a good house book.
“All the light we cannot see”
“the House of Spirits,” by Isabel Allende – her characters & places are always an absorbing read.
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake A summer home in Maine.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett is a fairly recent read for me with a great sense of place and a house that is a home.
You beat me to it! Enjoyed the book—so much of it spent in and around the old farmhouse.
“Don’t @ me, I ain’t having it.” ❤️❤️
Sullivan’s Island by Dorothea Benton Frank. The house is lived in by the oldest sister of 6 kids raised by a disfunctional single widowed mother till she meets the man of her dreams. The book moves from the children growing up in the 60s to contemporary times, finding their own loves and lives coming and going into the house.
I have been to Sullivan’s Island many times, and i walk the main roads looking for a house that could be this one.
Zadie Smith’s latest book, The Fraud, opens with a scene in a house where the floor has literally caved in under the weight of too many books. Hits a little too close to home…
Room by Emma Donoghue; could not put it down.
Bowling Avenue! I read it a few years ago and would love to give a copy to a friend. As a Canadian, it helped me to learn more about the south.
Shelter, by Sarah Stonich
Anne’s House of Dreams
“House” by Tracy Kidder describes in great detail the process of building a house both from the perspective of the builder and the future homeowner. It’s so well written I couldn’t put it down, and was a great help in keeping things in perspective when my family built a house.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett.
Swiss Family Robinson, tree houses are my fave
Based solely on most recent books I’ve read involving a house in an interesting way (both admittedly enjoyable and entertaining) are “Dreamland” by Nicholas Sparks and Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
Cold Mountain. It’s place as well as house.
The Fall of the House of Usher. Nightmares for long time.
The “evil” Hadley house in Louise Panny’s Three Pines books embodies all things dark and mysterious in this otherwise idyllic village.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House in the Big Woods”
The Turner House, by Angela Flournoy. Great read about a large family on Detroits east side.
You won’t be disappointed !
The Painted House by John Grisham. It was set in the time my parents was growing up and very similar to their childhoods.
Since reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens years ago, I’ve never forgotten the image conjured in my mind of Miss Havisham’s once-grand mansion Satis House — dilapidated, sad, dirty, spooky.
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Right now I am reading ‘Under a Gilded Moon, a Novel’ a new release by Joy Jordon-Lake. Biltmore is the house.
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
VC Andrews, Flowers in the Attic.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett is wonderful, as is hearing Tom Hanks read it to you on the audible version. The Yellow House by Sarah Broom, a memoir of a family home in New Orleans, A Place of My Own by Michael Pollen, who is such a good storyteller that anything he writes is engaging.
The book Empty Mansions features the mansion built by copper baron and United States Senator William A. Clark (1839–1925), one of the wealthiest men in the world at the time.
The book chronicles the Clark family’s involvement across much of American history, from a log cabin in Pennsylvania to mining camps during the Montana gold rush, railroad development and the Guilded Age with over seventy photos included.
Clarks owned at least seven Strads at one time or another, including the four instruments that Anna Clark lent to form the Paganini Quartet.
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
“The Country of the Pointed Firs” by Sarah Orne Jewett
The Hotel New Hampshire, by John Irving.
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
I have to admit I haven’t been reading as many books as I used to but a book I liked reading recently was, Where the Crawdads Sing.
“Hello Beautiful,” by Ann Napolitana, has a super duplex. Wonderful book!
“I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith.
We, the House by Warren Ashworth and Susan Kander, is set in my hometown of Newton, KS and covers it’s families in two different timelines.
The Only One Left by Riley Sager – the house feels like one of the characters in the book and ultimately plays a big role in the plot!
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
Heidi’s Grandfather’s cabin in the Alps… HEIDI
Twelve Oaks from ‘Gone With the Wind’. Makes me nostalgic for
living in the South.
Rebecca – Dame Daphne du Maurier
Alfred Hitchcock’s version is terrific!
Thank you DG – you always inspire!
PILGRIM’S INN by Elizabeth Goudge immediately comes to mind. Published in the late 40s in England it is the second of The Eliot Family trilogy. It is the first one I read and my favorite. Part of the family buy a house that had been a pilgrim’s inn. The house and its land help to heal a family damaged by the war.
Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House gets my nod.
If you give enough copies of North Woods as Christmas gifts —-are you then assured of getting one as a gift from someone to you?
House by Tracy Kidder. Not a novel but eads like one.
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again.”
Lallybroch from “Outlander”
This is easy. The Big House: A century in the life of an American summer home by George Howe colt.
I read it years ago and still think of it often. Time to read it again! Also, Anita shreve has several books that take place in the same NE house at different time periods with different characters. They’re all great too!
The Big House: A century in the life of an American summer home by George Howe colt.
It’s about a family owned home in cape cod. I read it years ago and still think of it often. Time to read it again! Also, Anita shreve has several books that take place in the same NE house at different time periods with different characters. They’re all great too!
I was going to write about this story too!! Except forgot the name!!!! So enjoyed it!!
Louise Penny creates living spaces that really are enjoyable …sometimes frightening! I love the local businesses and stores too… Le Bistro especially!
Gone with the Wind, bc Margaret Mitchell got the story of a Yankee soldier coming in the house and being killed from my ancestors!
Tara, from Gone With the Wind. One of the few books I’ve read more than once.
Rebecca
Gone with the Wind. You can visualize the different homes Scarlett lived in by the descriptions.
Outlander, the manor house.
The House at Old Vine by Norah Lofts
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Who wouldn’t want a flying house?
Atonement by Ian McEwan – One of my all-time favorite novels. The movie wasn’t too bad either but, as always, it never does a good novel justice. If you haven’t read this yet, you are totally missing out!
House, by Tracy Kidder. It’s about building a house and it is fascinating.
And I also want to add “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith and I think I need to re-read that now!
House by Tracy Kidder
Where The Forest Meets The Stars is my current favorite book. It’s about a woman who moves into a new house and who she meets there.
So this might seem like a strange answer but I suggest The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. In this case the home is a spaceship and a diverse crew must find ways to get along while keeping their creaky ship going. The claustrophobia of being in a small place together with beings who start out as strangers intrigues me, as does the need for trust to ensure survival on a tense mission. I strongly recommend all of the books by Becky Chambers,
Diary of Anne Frank
Ooooo. Thismw9uld be a great book list to have. Can you share?
Little House on the Prairie.
One Hundred Years of Solitude!
I actually had to Google for names of books featuring a house! Thanks to you, I want to read A Very Fine House by Rose Molina.
THANK YOU!!
“Less,” in which the protagonist succeeds in securing his house, and “Less is Lost,” in which he cross-crosses the country to keep from losing it.
Little Women. I always picture the girls sitting in their comfortable saltbox house in front of the fire with Marmie when I read it.
The World According to Garp
Rebecca! Can never forget Manderley.
Barbara Kingsolver – Unsheltered. I loved this book!
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Swiss Family Robinson. I’ve always loved the idea of living in a tree house.
Diane Tart, _The Little Friend _ .
My favorite house book this year, “ Starling House” , by Alix E. Harrow, set in Kentucky and based on a real house with a history of rather spooky events surrounding it.
The Little House on the Prairie. My niece loved the books.
I want to say that I love getting nw recommendations for Mr. Strong! I’m going to order North Woods on Tuesday when Antigone Books opens on Tuesday. (They take Mondays off. If you aren’t ordering from Ann Patchett’s book store in Nashville, consider ordering from Antigone in Tucson. It’s a great independent book store, and has been in business since the 70’s, which is phenomenal for a local independent book store. Nope, I don’t work for them, but I buy books there weekly.)
PS. I’d love to see a picture of Opal! Happy holidays, Opal!
ACCCHHHHH. Forgot to recommend a book! Slough House spy mysteries by Mick Herron. Read them in order of publication. There is also a streaming service series with Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas based on the books, and they are read aloud on Audible. I recommend theAudible series because one can knit at the same time.
Again, thank you Mr. Strong for your recommendations!
Reading Palace of Illusions by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni — a perfect palace created by magic. A retelling of the Mahabarata (from a woman’s point of view)