The Bible
I am starting with the Bible because it really does hold the answers, and because there are 365 times the Bible says “do not be afraid.” The Bible has comforted me so many times in my life. It’s words are like a soothing salve on the wounds and frays of daily living. I write the beautiful King James version of the verses in my watercolor journals and I enjoy going to bible study and talking about the Bible with others. My favorite chapter is the entirety of Psalm 91.
Gone-Away Lake
Next is the book that helped to plot the course of my life at 11 years old. When I read Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright I knew that a Victorian house was exactly what my heart wanted, and that I would raise my family in one. I yearned for the old days, maybe I was born in the wrong time, but I don’t really think that. Lol. 11-year-old me had made up her mind. I was in love with all the weird and wonky Victorian words, the wood-laced houses, the simplier, older times, and the mysteriousness of old houses, as well as the possibilities of ghosts and living a totally different life than the sterile one I had grown up in. I started drawing Victorian houses and obsessively copied them, made my own versions of Gone-Away and actually got very good at art. This led to my going to art school and working on and off in the historic preservation and the historic house museum field until I became a teacher. Then, we purchased our own Victorian (finally!) when I was 32 years old, in 2012. We had lived in Crafstman Bungalows since we were married so we had lots of practice on older houses and learned so much by fixing them up that when we finally moved into our house it was old hat. I also reccommend the sequel- Return to Gone-Away. Not quite as magical but still very fun!
Go to the Room of the Eyes
A couple of years later I ran onto Betty K. Erwin’s Go to the Room of the Eyes in the library and that book gave me a sort of blueprint on what it would be like to have lots of children growing up in a big old Victorian house- exactly what I wanted! I credit this book with helping me to know what I wanted from life and to leave an abusive relationship that was not going to put me anywhere near the path for that dream. Read about this here.
The Gingerbread Age
The next book is the book that made me realize there were actually LOTS of Victorian houses all over the US and people who loved them and I wasn’t the only weird one! John Mass’s The Gingerbread Age became like a Victorian Bible to me- leading me on wonderful jaunts through a real age in photographs and etchings that I had only imagined before in Gone-Away Lake ( and thankfully, Beth and Jo Krush’s illustrations for that book are true to the age!)
Sleeping Murder
After I got married I was keen to start a family but I fell on black ice while out running with our dog and broke the end of my femur off. That paused those dreams as I spent the next year just learning to walk again. While on bed rest awaiting surgery I read Agatha Christie’s wonderful Sleeping Murder and I was completely hooked on Agatha for the rest of my life. There was much to love in this book- an old Victorian “haunted” house, murder from the past, a sweet, young married couple, and Miss Marple. I credit this book with starting my lifetime love of Agatha Christie books.
The Baby Book
In later months of recovery I bought a bunch of cheap books to read including The Baby Book by Bill and Martha Sears. For some reason, I felt that it was sort of wrong of me to read this since I wasn’t going to be pregnant anytime soon, but it was a great eye-opener on attachment parenting and I immediately felt a strong sense of rightness with this way of parenting. This book was by my side the entire time I was raising little ones and I bought all their other books as well. They were such a wonderful resource on appropriate parenting and filled me with courage, strength and the path forward to be the mother my children deserved. It helped me to know what to do in almost every situation. Since I was an only child, far removed from most of my family (except my parents and an aunt and uncle) I had no prior experience with babies or little children. This book gave me insight and knowledge that I could apply to my real life. It was and is a perfect guide.
A long with The Baby Book came The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. This book was a great “user’s manual” for me to help establish nursing, and meet and exceed my breastfeeding goals for my babies. Nursing my babies is my life’s greatest accomplishment and reward. I feel like nothing else I have done could have brought me so close to them or could have such a long arc of influence over my parenting or their lives and health. This book helped me a lot and my local LLL group became a community of mothers who were all on the same path that I could lean on and in turn, help.
Drawn From New England: A Portrait in Words and Pictures
When my daughter was 2 I found a book that spoke to the longings I had to be an artist and a mother at the same time, and what that would look like, and if it as even possible. I didn’t have many resources for working mothers of young children in my life, much less mothers who were artists. When I read Bethany Tudor’s biography of her mother Tasha Tudor: Drawn From New England: A Portrait in Words and Pictures I saw for the first time how it could work. Like me, Tasha had no choice but to work to support her family. She and her husband ran a farm and she illustrated books- all while having and nursing 4 babies! Thankfully, she was good friends with photographer Nell Dorr and there are many beautiful pictures of her being an artist and a mother at the same time. This was a huge, life-changing inspiration to me. Of course I struggled, and was never able to completely rely on the money I made painting and illustrating, but it did help us a lot when it did come and it was very affirming to be able to raise my children to see an artist at work and to make art with them. There were also plenty of times I didn’t make art at all!
The Secret of Sterling House
Of course, I had to include my own book, The Secret of Sterling House. Readers are writers my friends and if there is a story inside you let it out! This was me dreaming of living in a Victorian house one day and living in my imagination. That dream came true, but it sure was fun to pretend for a while and it’s till fun for me to read this book about a secret treasure hunt that two siblings go on to solve in their “new-to-them” Victorian house.
Moleskine Sketchbook Journals
The last book is one I am writing. In 2007, about the same time I found the Tasha Tudor book, my professor in college for my teaching courses had us start keeping a journal/sketchbook. I found the new Moleskine Sketchbook and started in right away. I’ve been recording my life in them ever since with drawings and words. (Music and words- as Cathy Johnson says.)
There are many other books that have touched me greatly, but I tried to keep this list to the ones that did the most. Otherwise this would be an incredibly long article. Books are such a treasure for the soul. I am so blessed to have them in my life and to have such great books that helped me so much.
Please let me know in the comments if you have any books that were very important to your life. I would love to read them!
From a blessed little library room on Kansas Street to you,
Jaime
Life on Kansas Street 