A stack of six books on a wooden surface, with their spines facing outward. The titles from top to bottom are: "The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs" by Joel Salatin, "Keeping House" by Margaret Kim Peterson, "An Everlasting Meal" by Tamar Adler, "art in Everyday Life" by G. Woblstein, and "Hollyhocks, Lambs and Other Passions" by Dee Hardie.

The sight of a book list makes me a little giddy. These books have influenced me deeply in my vocation of homemaking, or give voice to the things I have observed on my own. They are in no particular order.

  • The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaffer

  • Heaven by Randy Alcorn

  • The Opt-Out Family By Erin Loechner

  • The Hand’s -On Home by Erica Strauss

  • The Dorito Effect by Mark Schatzer

  • The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs by Joel Salatin

  • Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life by Margaret Kim Peterson

  • An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace by Tamar Adler

  • Hollyhocks, Lambs and other Passions by Dee Hardie

  • Stillmeadow books by Gladys Taber

  • Art in Everyday Life by Harriet and Vetta Goldstein

  • First We Have Coffee by Margaret Jensen

  • Mary Emma and Company by Ralph Moody

  • The Little House series by Laura Ingles Wilder

Homemaking Skills and foundations…

Book cover titled "The Hands-On Home: A Seasonal Guide to Cooking, Preserving & Natural Homekeeping" by Erica Strauss. The cover features stacked dish towels, glass jars, a wire basket with oranges, and various homekeeping items.

And this is my list of fiction books which have helped shape my imagination for what home is, what it can accomplish, and who I want to be as a homemaker:

  • Re-creations, The Enchanted Barn, and various others by Grace Livingston Hill

  • Jane of Lantern Hill by L. M. Montgomery

  • The Thrushgreen series by Miss Read

  • Jaber Crow by Wendel Berry

  • The Elliot Trilogy, The Castle on the Hill by Elizabeth Goudge

  • Almost everything by D. E. Stevenson

A colorful illustrated children's book depicts a boy giving a piggyback ride into the kitchen. Inside, a dog is sitting on the floor. A woman with a braid stands in a doorway holding a plate. The kitchen has a patterned rug, hooks with hats on the wall, and a window with curtains.

And children’s books:

  • Any book by Eloise Wilkins books but I especially love Baby Mine and The Good Morning Book

  • Miss Susie by Miriam Young

  • The Brambly Hedge books by Jill Barkley Though I must say, the idea that you can have such a beautiful community with no beautiful, challenging, and unchangeable standards of beliefs and moral conduct is quite a lie.

  • A Child’s Calendar Poems by John Updike Illustrations by Trina Start Hyman

Have you read anything of these? What are some of your most influential homemaking reads? I’d love to hear about it all.